Best Baseball Player Per State: Washington

 This is a new series by me, Shanan H.  I will be profiling the best baseball player born in each state for each of the 50 states, eventually!

I decided to start with my home state, Washington.

With everything from bagpipe champions to Nirvana singers being born here, the list of competitors is quite long:

Ryne Sandberg

Career statistics
Batting average	.285
Hits	2,386
Home runs	282
Runs batted in	1,061

Career highlights and awards

10× All-Star selection (1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993) 9× Gold Glove Award winner (1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991) 7× Silver Slugger Award winner (1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992) 1984 NL MVP 1990 Home Run Derby winner Cubs#Retired_Numbers" title="Chicago Cubs">Chicago Cubs #23 retired

Member of the National

Baseball Hall of Fame

Ron Santo

Career statistics
Batting average	.277
Home runs	342
Runs batted in	1,331

Career highlights and awards

9x All-Star selection (1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973) 5x Gold Glove Award winner (1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968) 1973 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award Chicago Cubs #10 retired   Grady Sizemore Career statistics (through April 15, 2009) Batting average     .278 Home runs     113 Runs batted in     355 Stolen bases     119 Career highlights and awards 3x All-Star selection (2006, 2007, 2008) 2x Gold Glove Award winner (2007, 2008) Silver Slugger Award winner (2008) Led AL in runs in 2006 Led AL in doubles in 2006   Jeff Conine Career statistics Batting average     .285 Home runs     214 Runs batted in     1,071 Career highlights and awards 2x All-Star selection (1994, 1995) 2x World Series champion (1997, 2003) 1995 MLB All-Star Game MVP Fred Hutchinson   Career statistics Win-Loss record     95-71 Earned run average     3.73 Strikeouts     591 Teams Career highlights and awards All-Star selection (1951) Reds#Retired_Numbers" title="Cincinnati Reds">Cincinnati Reds #1 retired   Tim Lincecum Career statistics (through 2008 season) Win-Loss     25–10 Earned run average     3.16 Strikeouts     415 Career highlights and awards Golden Spikes Award (2006) All-Star(NL): 2008 Led majors in strikeouts in 2008 2008 NL Cy Young Award Billy North Career statistics Batting average     .261 Hits     1016 Stolen bases     395 Career highlights and awards Led A.L. in stolen bases in 1974 (54) and 1976 (75) North was the first DH ever.   John Olerud Career statistics Batting average     .295 Hits     2,239 Home runs     255 Runs batted in     1,230 Career highlights and awards 2x All-Star selection (1993, 2001) 3x Gold Glove Award winner (2000, 2002, 2003) 1993 Hutch Award Earl Averill Career statistics Batting average     .318 Home runs     238 Runs batted in     1,164 Career highlights and awards 6× All-Star selection (1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938) Indians#Retired_Numbers" title="Cleveland Indians">Cleveland Indians #3 retired Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame   Jeremy Bonderman Career statistics (through 2008 season) Win-Loss     59–66 Earned run average     4.74 Strikeouts     812   Ron Cey Career statistics Batting average     .261 Home runs     316 Runs batted in     1,139 Career highlights and awards 6x All-Star selection (1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979) World Series champion (1981) 1981 World Series MVP 1981 Babe Ruth Award 1982 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award Who do you think?  Vote now, and then go to the next page:

Yes, a tough race for sure.

Mariner's fans will want me to pick Olerud, for sure.

But, I think that there are other players better than him.

Earl Averill and Ryne Sandberg both are Hall of famers, and will be head to head in the final match up.

In between these two players, I would choose Averill.

While he had a shorter career and fewer homers, I think his well improved batting average gets him Washington State's number one baseball player award.

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