MLB players who started at Nashville schools

Before he was an MVP-contending outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Mookie Betts was a star at Overton High School.

• Betts is one of 39 former Nashville high school players who made it all the way to Major League Baseball, according to research recently released by local baseball historian Skip Nipper.

Zoom in: Former Cy Young award winner R.A. Dickey is among five former Montgomery Bell Academy players who reached the big leagues.

• Four Pearl High players also reached the majors, according to Nipper's research.

Be smart: To compile the list, Nipper used research from Pro Baseball Reference, newspapers.com and ancestry.com.

• Nipper has also researched MLB players with roots in Nashville universities.
• As you might expect, the baseball juggernaut at Vanderbilt leads the way with 50 former players, followed by Lipscomb with six and Belmont with three.

Flashback: Studying players with Nashville high school roots is a perfect opportunity to remember the legacy of local legend Turkey Stearnes.

• Over 18 seasons in the Negro leagues, Stearnes hit .349 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000.

Nipper published the full list on his website, Baseball in Nashville