Playing Major League Baseball in four decades has been attained by only 31 players in the league's history, dating from the 1870s to the present day.
Since 1900 (the first year that a player could play in a "fourth decade"), every completed decade except the 1920s has added at least one player to the list.
Outside of skill and durability, a player must usually have some "generational luck" to have started his career in the later years of a decade, so that if he is still playing 21–24 years later, he is playing in the early years of a fourth decade. [1] For example, Albert Pujols started his career in 2001, so he would have had to play 30 seasons to make the list. Whereas Bill Buckner, whose career started in the last year of the 1960s, finished his career in the first year of the 1990s, requiring only 22 seasons to make the list. Most of the players on the list started their careers in the final or second-to-last year of their first decade and finished their careers in the first or second year of their fourth decade (a notable exception is Nolan Ryan, whose 27 seasons played is a major league record).
Although it has always been possible for a retired three-decade player to make a cameo appearance in a fourth decade for the purpose of joining the list, the only player to have actually done this was Minnie Miñoso, who took the field twice for his former team, the White Sox, at the ages of 50 and 54 as part of a publicity stunt organized by owners Bill and Mike Veeck. [2] Such a stunt has become less likely in the modern era after the introduction of the 40 man roster and league minimum salaries.
Minnie Miñoso, Nick Altrock and Satchel Paige are the only three players to have appeared in major league baseball games in five different decades. None were continuously active at the MLB level; Altrock was a coach on the Washington Senators and appeared sparingly over just seventeen games in a twenty-two season span from 1912-1933, while Satchel Paige spent significant time in the minors during his 40 years in professional baseball.
Paige was added to the list post mortem, due to Major League Baseball incorporating Negro league records (and thus his career in the 1920s and 1930s) into its own history in 2021. Paige was just one of at least a dozen Negro League players whose careers spanned four decades, or more. Candy Jim Taylor's career as a full-time player began in 1904 and ended in the mid-1930s, but he made a handful of appearances while managing in the Negro American League in the 1940s. Hence, like Paige, Taylor qualifies as a five-decade player.
Major League Baseball recognizes the first major league season as 1876, the inaugural season of the National League. The following three players played parts of their careers in the 1850s and 1860s, and do not qualify as four-decade players, although they played four decades at the highest level of play available to them at the time: Joe Start (1859-1886), Candy Nelson (1867-1890), and Deacon White (1868-1890).
The National Association is widely recognized as a precursor to modern major league baseball. It existed from 1871 to 1875, before giving way to the National League in 1876. One four-decade player, Jim O'Rourke began his career in 1872 with the National Association's Middletown Mansfields.
African Americans have played professionally since 1878 when Bud Fowler first played professionally, although he had been playing since at least 1877 and possibly as early as 1872. Major League Baseball does not consider any players or leagues prior to 1920 to be Major league players. The following players played four decades at the highest level of play possible to them at the time: Bud Fowler (1878-1904), Clarence Williams (1886-1913), Candy Jim Taylor (1904-1942) (as noted above), Smokey Joe Williams (1905-1932), John Henry Lloyd (1906-1932), Pelayo Chacón (1908-1931), Oscar Charleston (1915-1941), José Fernández (1915-1947), George Britt (1917-1942), and Bill Holland (1919-1941). Taylor also played at the highest level possible to him for five decades.
It is now unlikely that the 2020s will add any players to the list as none who debuted in the 1990s has played past 2019. Near misses include Rick Ankiel (debuted 1999), who ended his attempt at a comeback in 2019, [3] Adrian Beltre (born 1979), who made his debut in 1998, but retired after the 2018 season, and Bartolo Colón (debuted 1997) whose reported interest in pitching for the New York Mets in 2022 came to nothing. [4] [5] Colón did manage to play national championship baseball during four different decades, with 11 games for the Mexican League's Acereros de Monclova in 2021.
Baseball-Reference.com lists 19 still-active players who debuted in 2009 or earlier and have a chance to make the list by playing until 2030. The youngest is Madison Bumgarner, born in 1989, who will turn 41 in 2030.
The players are listed by primary position played and years spanning their careers. Fifteen players from the group have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Of the 31 players, 12 were primarily pitchers, six were primarily catchers, seven were primarily outfielders, and six were primarily infielders; the group covers virtually the complete range of baseball positions, missing only a third baseman.
† | Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame |
---|
Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB). His career spanned five decades and culminated with his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro Major Leagues".
James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell was an American center fielder in Negro league baseball from 1922 to 1946. He is considered to have been one of the fastest men ever to play the game. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. He ranked 66th on a list of the greatest baseball players published by The Sporting News in 1999.
Joshua Gibson was an American baseball catcher primarily in the Negro leagues. In 1972, he became the second Negro league player to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Saturnino Orestes "Minnie" Armas Arrieta Miñoso, nicknamed "the Cuban Comet", was a Cuban professional baseball player. He began his baseball career in the Negro leagues in 1946 and became an All-Star third baseman with the New York Cubans. He was signed by the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball (MLB) after the 1948 season as baseball's color line fell. Miñoso went on to become an All-Star left fielder with the Indians and Chicago White Sox. The first Afro-Latino in the major leagues and the first black player in White Sox history, as a 1951 rookie he was one of the first Latin Americans to play in an MLB All-Star Game.
Hilton Lee Smith was an American right-handed pitcher in Negro league baseball. He pitched alongside Satchel Paige for the Kansas City Monarchs and Bismarck Churchills between 1932 and 1948. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001.
This list comprises players who have appeared in Negro league baseball.
Nicholas Altrock was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played in the major leagues as a left-handed pitcher between 1898 and 1919. After the 1919 season he continued to make periodic appearances as a pinch hitter for many years, until his final game at the age of 57. As a player, Altrock was a member of two World Series winning teams and then won a third World Series as a coach. He was a coach for the Washington Senators for many years.
Robert Richard Boyd was an American first baseman in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball.
James Barton"Mickey"Vernon was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman who played for the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox (1956–1957), Milwaukee Braves (1959) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1960). He also was the first manager in the history of the expansion edition of the Senators, serving from 1961 through May 21, 1963, and was a coach for four MLB teams between 1960 and 1982.
The Birmingham Black Barons were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1920 until 1960, including 18 seasons recognized as Major League by Major League Baseball. They shared their home field of Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, with the white Birmingham Barons, usually drawing larger crowds and equal press.
John Melvin "Bubba" Phillips was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) third baseman from Macon, Mississippi. He played for ten seasons on the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, and Cleveland Indians, from 1955 through 1964. Phillips was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1972.
Elander Victor Harris was an American professional baseball outfielder and manager in the Negro leagues. Listed at 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m), 168 lb., Harris batted left-handed and threw right-handed.
The 1980 Major League Baseball season was the Chicago White Sox' 80th in Major League Baseball, and the team's 81st season overall. They finished with a record of 70–90, good enough for fifth place in the American League West, 26 games behind the first-place Kansas City Royals.
The Mobile Tigers was a semi-professional baseball team composed entirely of African-American players based in Mobile, Alabama. It was one of several Black baseball teams based in Mobile during the same period and was a training ground for at least three players who later joined the Negro leagues.
John "Mule" Miles was an American professional baseball player who played with the Chicago American Giants of the Negro leagues from 1946 to 1949. Nicknamed "the Mule" by his manager Candy Jim Taylor after hitting two home runs in one ball game. Taylor commented that Miles "hit like a mule kicks". Miles is legendary for hitting 11 home runs in 11 straight games. John Miles played alongside baseball stars Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Monte Irvin. He performed at Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds, Comiskey Park, and Griffith Stadium among others.
The 1953 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 20th playing of the mid-summer classic between the All-Stars teams of the American League (AL) and National League (NL), the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball. The game was held on July 14 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, home of the Cincinnati Redlegs of the National League. The team changed its name from Reds to Redlegs this season, during the height of anti-communism in the United States; it returned to the Reds six years later.
Bob Mitchell was an American pitcher who played in Negro league baseball.
Baseball first rose to popularity in Mexico during the 1880s, and may have been introduced there as early as 1846. Mexico's current premier baseball league, the Mexican Baseball League, was founded in 1925 and consists of two divisions with 16 teams in total. The Mexican League has been classified as a Triple-A level league since 1967, and was classified as a Double-A league before then.