Today, as yesterday, the game has been blessed by older players who continue to play because they can.
Rich Hill (photo courtesy NBC News)
Rich Hill, age 45, became the oldest player to appear in a major league game this year when he pitched for the Kansas City Royals in July. Another hurler, Justin Verlander of the San Francisco Giants, is 42 and hopes to pitch until 45. The three-time Cy Young winner, plagued by poor run support earlier in the season, pitched very well of late.
Justin Verlander: “Nolan [Ryan] was my idol growing up. He was able to pitch until 46. It wasn’t a particular goal, but it was something that I felt like I had the capability of doing.”
Here are some former major leaguers who played past 45.
Satchel Paige wrote a book titled Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever, and he almost did. He began his career in 1926 for the Negro National League and played there until Bill Veeck, then with Cleveland, signed him to a contract with the Indians when Paige was 42. Paige went 6-1 with a 2.48 ERA down the stretch, helping Cleveland win the American League pennant and eventually the World Series.
The great Satchel Paige (photo courtesy Society for American Baseball Research)
He pitched effectively in the American League through 1953, when he was released at age 47. He was named to the AL All-Star Game roster in both 1952 and 1953. Late in 1965, Charlie Finley signed Paige with the Kansas City A’s and had him start against the Boston Red Sox at home in Municipal Stadium on September 25. Before the game, Paige sat in the bullpen in a rocking chair while a nurse rubbed liniment into his pitching arm for the crowd to see. The team moved the chair into the dugout so Paige could relax between innings.
Paige, 59, allowed two baserunners in the first inning, but neither scored. He set down all six batters in the next two innings, including a strikeout, throwing 28 pitches and leaving with a 1-0 lead. As he said later, “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” In 1971, Paige became the first Negro League player elected to the Hall of Fame.
Julio Franco played his final MLB game for the Atlanta Braves 25 days after turning 49 in 2007. In his only at-bat that day, he drilled a pinch-hit RBI single. Franco said, “As long as you can play this game, that’s all that matters. Some people are 20 and they’re good lawyers, some are 40 and not good.”
Jamie Moyer won 21 games for the Seattle Mariners at age 41. But he was far from done. Over the next seven seasons, the southpaw won 82 more games, then underwent Tommy John surgery after the 2010 campaign. He returned in 2012 at age 49 and won an opening day roster spot on the Colorado Rockies. He was not very effective, but on May 16, he became the oldest major league pitcher ever to win a game before the Rockies released him. He also drove in two runs with a single.
Hall of Fame knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm didn’t pitch in the majors until age 29. But he made up for lost time, throwing another 20 years and becoming the first player to win the ERA title in both the National and American Leagues. His final action was on July 10, 1972, 16 days before he turned 50.
Minnie! (photo courtesy The Baseball Scholar)
Minnie Miñoso played professional baseball in seven different decades. Miñoso was an MLB outfielder and third baseman from 1946 to 1964, when he turned 39 years old. After he played in Mexico for the next ten years or so, Veeck, the great promoter and Miñoso’s employer when Miñoso was with the White Sox, brought him back to the ChiSox in 1976 to play three games late in the season. Four years later, Veeck gave him another shot, and the 50-year-old Miñoso had two pinch-hit appearances. He had two more plate appearances, one each in 1993 and 2003 (at age 77) for the independent St. Paul Saints—walking in the second game.
Charlie O’Leary was Ty Cobb’s teammate during his playing days with the Detroit Tigers. He retired after 1913 and spent the next 20 years as a coach, primarily for the New York Yankees. In 1934, when he was completing his first year as a coach for the St. Louis Browns, manager Rogers Hornsby let him go to the plate for his first official at-bat in 21 years. He singled and scored. He was 58, making him the oldest major leaguer ever to get a hit and score a run in a major league game,
In 1876, catcher Jim O’Rourke was the first player in National League history to get a hit. He thought he had played his last big-league game in 1893. But at age 54, O’Rourke, who had been working as a player-manager for Bridgeport in the minor-league Connecticut State League, was called up by New York Giants manager John McGraw to play one last game in the big leagues. He went 1-for-4 with a single and scored a run. He caught Hall-of-Fame pitcher Joe McGinnity.
Jack Quinn, one of two major leaguers born in Slovakia, was a solid pitcher who never had an outstanding season other than in 1914 in the Federal League, when he won 26 games. He pitched in the majors until 1933, when he was 49 years old. As a reliever, he led the league in saves with Brooklyn in 1931 and 1932. With Cincinnati in 1933, he recorded his 56th and final career save on June 3, retiring all three batters he faced, a month before reaching the half-century mark. Although the statistic wasn’t yet official, Quinn thereby became the oldest player ever to record a save. He played his final game on July 7, six days after he turned 50. The Reds released him six days later..
Slugger Frank Howard, who retired at age 37 (and who otherwise wouldn’t be on this list), summed up the frustrations of getting older: “The trouble with baseball,” he said, “is by the time you learn how to play it, you can’t play it anymore.”
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The author drew on this article in writing this column.
