Quinquagenarians in Major League Baseball

A quinquagenarian is a long word to describe someone who is in their 50s. In MLB history, only six players have made an appearance in a regular season game at age 50 or older. I started a mini-collection of such players a while back and thought today I would share the major leaguers who made it past 50. All of these players, not surprisingly, only appeared in a handful of games or less after they turned 50. 

Satchel Paige

Last MLB appearance: 1965 (age 59)

Paige played four seasons at the AAA level during his 50s, three with the Miami Marlins (Phillies affiliate) and one with the Portland Beavers (Cardinals affiliate). Of all the players appearing in MLB during their 50s, Paige clearly had the best resume. 

Charley O'Leary

Last MLB appearance: 1934 (age 58)

O'Leary made just one appearance with the 1934 St. Louis Browns, as a pinch hitter. He made the most of it, recording a single and scoring a run. 

Nick Altrock

Last MLB appearance: 1933 (age 57)

Altrock made three single game appearances during his 50s with the Washington Senators, in 1929, 1931, and 1933.

Minnie Minoso

Last MLB appearance: 1980 (age 56)

From Minoso's SABR biography: In 1976 (White Sox owner Bill Veeck) hired Miñoso as a coach, then talked him into playing a game as a DH at age 50. Miñoso went hitless against the California Angels in four at-bats. One day later, he singled as a pinch-hitter. He remained with the team as a coach through 1978, and reappeared in a White Sox uniform in 1980, making two official plate appearances to join Nick Altrock as baseball’s only five-decade players.

Minnie Miñoso – Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org)

Jim O'Rourke

Last MLB appearance: 1904 (age 54) 

From O'Rourke's SABR Biography: With the New York Giants on the verge of their first pennant since 1889, manager John McGraw summoned O’Rourke, the last active member of that old championship team, to catch the title clincher. And the old warrior did not disappoint, handling Joe McGinnity over all nine innings of a 7-5 victory over Cincinnati. He even went 1-for-4 at the plate.

Jim O’Rourke – Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org)

Jack Quinn

Last MLB appearance: 1933 (age 50)

Quinn appeared in 14 games for the Reds in 1933. He was released just two weeks after his 50th birthday. This card is a reprint, but I've been interested in acquiring a Goudey card, so the original copy of this one might be a candidate for that pursuit. 

Honorable mention goes to two players, both favorites of mine, who were productive through their age 49 season, but didn't stay in the league until age 50: Hoyt Wilhelm and Jamie Moyer. Wilhelm threw his final pitch just a couple weeks shy of his 50th birthday. Part of me wants to add these two guys to this collection. I'll have to think about it. 

Stay tuned for my list of players who made a minor league appearance at age 50 or older.

The March to 1,000: New Additions

Since finishing my Frankenset, I have shifted my focus to my all-time Cubs player collection. Recent Cardbarrel and eBay orders and some card show pickups brought my total from 830 to 886. 

I compiled a list for my own reference of cards using the team page on Trading Card Database. This helped me find some cards from the 1995-present period that I had missed. I filled in some of those using Cardbarrel. We'll start with a group of guys I wouldn't have thought of in a million years without TCDB.

And a couple you might actually recognize:

Then, I focused on the late 40s / early 50s players, finding a seller on eBay offering some Bowman reprints of those players. Starting again with some randoms:

Maybe you thought, "Wait, I think I've heard of Dutch Leonard." You probably have heard of the other Dutch Leonard, though this guy actually had the better career.

A couple guys you're more likely to know:

I thought I had a good chance at getting some late 50s or early 60s cards from a vendor at a recent card show, and I was right. As I already have cards of the star players from pretty much every era, all of these are commons:

Art Schult looks sleepy.

Larry Jackson doesn't look thrilled to be joining the Cubs after 8 years with the Cardinals. St. Louis would go on to finish 2nd in the NL in 1963, while the Cubs ended up 7th. The Jack Curtis cards would fit well in my "blurry" card collection, but it is destined for the Cubs binder.

  

Also picked up some cards for my 2nd and 3rd tier player collections. The Mudcat Grant is well-loved. Liking the '79 Tiant signing autos and the Satchel Paige (does he have a bad card?). 

I've identified over 150 players on my master list who have a card that I think is fairly attainable. So that would put me over 1,000. I'm thinking when/if I get to 1,000, I would just focus on adding new players (though Topps Total is an online-only product now, I believe, meaning some players will be harder to come by at a reasonable price). 

Hoping to get some fun Frankenset facts out there in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.