Allow Me To Brag ...

I'll throw some names out ... all of whom were Ohio residents. Let me know if you're impressed.

I'm going to put together some 'All-Ohio' teams ...

Everyone knows the goal of baseball is to get hits. It's a simple game. Nobody ever had more hits in a career than Pete Rose. Rose was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 14, 1941. Nobody had more hits in a season than George Sisler - born in Manchester, Ohio in 1893 - between 1920 and 2004. Ichiro Suzuki passed that mark in 2004 - but he had eight more games to do it.

Those guys could get hits ... but few could hit it further than Ken Griffey Jr. One of just seven players to hit over 600 homers, the Cincinnati native ranks sixth all-time in that category.

More power could be provided from Michael Jack Schmidt - a three-time National League MVP and 12-time all-star. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Schmidt went to school at Ohio University.

If you had a team with guys like Griffey, Rose, Schmidt and Sisler and they scored you a lot of runs, you still need pitching.

Pitching?

Ohio has that. Nobody ever won more games (and never will come remotely close to winning as many games) as Cy Young (Gilmore, Ohio) or you could turn to a guy like Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, a Bridgeport, Ohio native and the winningest knuckleball pitcher of all time with 318 wins. Young or Niekro could be your starting pitchers to help get the ball into the hands of Rollie Fingers (Steubenville, Ohio) to close to the door for you in the ninth inning. He's one of just two relief pitchers inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Obviously you'd have to fill out a whole lineup, but those guys with shortstop Barry Larkin (Cincinnati), pitcher Rube Marquad (Cleveland) and catcher Thurmon Munson (Akron) would be a good place to start.
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I touched on that a bit earlier. Nobody has won more NFL games than Grand River's Don Shula '51. No one won more Super Bowls as a head coach than Cleveland's Chuck Noll ... who unfortunately did it with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Those guys can coach just about anybody, but they wouldn't have to if they were picking an all-Ohio team.

Hall of Famers Larry Csonka, Len Dawson, Dan Dierdorf, Lou Groza, Jack Lambert, Dante Lavelli, Alan Page, Roger Staubach and Paul Warfield - just to name a few - were all born in Ohio. (Hall of Famers by state.) That list will grow in the future with Eddie George, Orlando Pace and Charles Woodson up for election in the next few years. Ohio boys can play some football.

I could add college legends like Howard Cassady, Archie Griffin and Desmond Howard, but I won't. Point made.
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If you like basketball, you could form a great team with players that were born in Ohio. LeBron James, public enemy number one in Cleveland, could help out. NBA Hall of Famers - and Ohio State Buckeyes before they turned professional - John Havlicek (Lansing, Ohio) and Jerry Lucas (Middletown, Ohio) could represent the state one more time. Two guys who don't get enough publicity because they were African-Americans playing in a very racist time were Nate Thurmond and Gus Johnson. Both of those Akron natives don't receive 1/100th of the publicity Akron's LeBron James receives but would certainly be on the team. Orreville, Ohio native Bob Knight - the winnigest coach in NCAA Division I men's basketball history - could do wonders with that group.
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Those are all team sports. Individual athletes, well, Ohio has those too. World class track and field athletes Jesse Owens (Cleveland) and Edwin Moses (Dayton) hail from the Buckeye State. You could go blind looking at all the gold medals those too earned over the years. Their trophy cases rival that of Jack Nickalus (Columbus) who has won more Professional Golf Associations major championships than any other golfer.