Top 5 - Baseball Players from South Dakota

Here are who I consider the top 5 baseball players from South Dakota.

1. Keith Foulke - 190 career saves and a hero of the 2004 World Series
2. Terry Forster - 127 career saves, a regular season ERA of 3.23 and a post-season ERA (almost 8 innings) of 0.00 - Forster became "famous" when David Letterman referred to him as a "fat tub of goo" but perhaps the most interesting thing about Forrester is the fact that he hit .397 in his career (78 AB) - that means if Forster had one more hit he would have had a career batting average over .400 (.410)
3. Mark Ellis - 2nd baseman for the A's - all-time leader in HR by a South Dakota born player with 57 and counting
4. Dave Collins - a good field, no-hit outfielder who is in 70th place on the all-time list when it comes to steals with 395.
5. (tie) Terry Francona - just because I'm a Red Sox fan (tie) Jim Scott - twice won more than 20 games in a season plus he was born in Deadwood in 1888 just after the time portrayed in the TV series

Pretty slim pickings for South Dakota who must be happy that at least they are not North Dakota. You may have assumed that Roger Maris would be on the list but if you made that assumption then you forgot that Maris was actually born in Hibbing, MN (home of Boston Celtics great Kevin McHale).