California is famous for its coastline, its entertainment industry, and — more recently — its industry. However, California has also produced a huge number of world-famous sports stars over the years.
Although it might not be the first state everyone thinks of when discussing top-notch athletics, California is actually the birthplace of many sports stars. Keep reading to learn about our top picks for California’s best home-grown sports stars in all of the most popular professional sports.
Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio is so famous and was such a great athlete that he made it into a Simon and Garfunkel song— which is not something everyone can say about themselves! DiMaggio was a top baseball player who played center field.He is primarily remembered for his amazing 56 game hitting streak. It is possible that DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak is a record which will never be broken — and if it ever is, that player is certainly amazing!
DiMaggio is one of the best baseball players to ever live and he has certainly made his hometown of Martinez, California very proud for decades. He also notably was selected13 times for the All-Star team, was a nine-time World Series Champion, and a three-time AL MVP – quite a series of wins and accolades!
Mark Spitz
Mark Spitz was born in Modesto, California and is another phenomenal Californian athlete. Spitz was a professional swimmer who collected nine different Gold Medals at the Olympics and was considered an absolute titan of the pool. He dominated the swimming sports, shattered a series of records, and was essentially the Michael Phelps of his time. In fact, his record of gold medals was only recently broken by Michael Phelps in 2008.
Ted Williams
Ted Williams is another baseball star who should be included in every list of top Californian athletes. Born in sunny San Diego, Williams was a left fielder during his long and illustrious baseball career.He may very well be the best all-around hitter to ever play baseball. Williams is actually the last player to post over a .400 batting average in a season, as he batted .406 in 1941. You know someone is a great athlete when their record has not been broken since 1941!
He achieved a .344 batting average over the course of his career and hit 521 home runs. Unsurprisingly, he was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1966.He was also inducted into the Pro Fishing Hall of Fame, so he was clearly a well-rounded athlete.
Taking a love of sports to the next level
Many sports fans want to engage with their favorite sports on a new level and the increasing legalization of sports betting makes this possible. However, sports betting is fairly new to most Americans and they may not know where to start.
Unlike countries like England and Ireland, America does not have along history of sports betting with brick and mortar betting shops on nearly every corner in some small towns in Europe. Thisis where the internet comes in. You can visit sidelines.io to learn more about the best platforms for sports betting, the odds for a particular game and information related to a certain team’s performance all on one convenient website.
Tiger Woods
No list of Californian athletes would be complete without Tiger Woods. Woods was a, well, tiger of international golf for decades.Even though he has had a few difficult years, he has come back swinging. Woods was born in Cypress, California and remains in California to this day.
Tiger Woods has 97 professional wins to his name along with 14 major championship wins. Even though Woods has been rocked by scandals and controversies over the course of the last few years, he remains a dominating, intimidating presence on thegolf course.
Pete Sampras
Born in Los Angeles, Pete Sampras has enjoyed an extremely successful tennis career. He won seven Wimbledon championships and hasalso won five different US Opens. Altogether, he has 64 different career titles and a whopping 762 career wins to his name.
Sampras was also the year-end number one player from 1993 all the way up until 1998. Additionally, he had the most Grand Slam single wins of any tennis player until he was overtaken by Roger Federer in 2009. Sampras is undeniably one of the best tennis players ever and his championship titles and since broken records are extremely impressive.
