If you want the best lobster, you head to Maine. The best wines are in France, and the best Bloomin' Onion is at Outback.

But if you're talking about top-notch baseball, east Cobb is where to go.

It all started when East Marietta won the Little League World Series in 1983. That group stayed together and formed what would become the core of East Cobb Baseball, with ECB founder Guerry Baldwin at the helm.

"It starts with good coaching," said East Cobb Braves coach Wes Rynders. "When you have good coaching, it attracts talent. Ironically, people think that we recruit, but we don't. Everybody comes here because they are sick of getting beat by us, and they want to join."

Rynders should know. He grew up in East Cobb Baseball, graduating from Pope High School in 1998. He played four years at Georgia Tech and was an assistant coach for Danny Hall's team in 2006-07.

He left Tech to coach at East Cobb full time and recently started up the East Cobb Baseball Academy with Baldwin's son Kevin, who was a two-time high school All-American at Lassiter and has coached at Chattahoochee and Kell.

These days, East Cobb Baseball is known throughout the nation. Players from as far away as California spend their summers in the metro area playing against the best competition.

"I help coach the No. 1 17-year-old team, and we have kids from Florida and Nashville," Rynders said. "The bulk of our talent is home grown, but we [also] will get out-of-town guys. They come and live here through the summer, and it is well worth it for the kids to do that.

"They know that if they are good enough to play for East Cobb Baseball, they have a great chance at a college scholarship or to be drafted," Rynders said.

If you think that ECB has an inflated sense of itself, here are a few numbers to consider.

Through the years, 113 former ECB players have been paid to play the sport. Such major leaguers as Kris Benson, Jeff Francoeur, Blaine Boyer and Corey Patterson honed their skills in the program.

Name a top baseball player in the area, and chances are he plays for East Cobb. This year's crop is headed to colleges across the nation and includes Lassiter's Garrett May, Walton's Alex Sherrod, Lassiter's Michael Palazzone and Kell's Zeke Spruill.

The numbers are even more astounding when you throw in college players who earned their rides on the red clay off Lee Waters Road.

Kids as young as 8 play for East Cobb teams, and their education in baseball goes through age 18. Since 1985, ECB teams have captured 121 national titles —- from the Dizzy Dean World Series to Babe Ruth national championships.

Over the span of 20-plus years, a lot of things have changed. East Cobb Baseball has gone from playing on local high school diamonds to having a top of the line facility. The organization also has gone from just a group of fathers who wanted their kids to travel around and play the best teams to a nonprofit corporation.

"The core of that [World Series team] really originated in East Cobb," Rynders said. "That was when it really got huge. They won four consecutive world series titles, and that established us as a legitimate power."