Oldest and Youngest Players as Teammates

I was watching a Blue Jays game the other night with Omar Vizquel starting at shortstop and Drew Hitchison starting on the mound. Vizquel, of course, is the oldest player in the AL this year, and Hutchison the second youngest, after Mike Trout. Vizquel and Hutchison also started for the Jays on April 26th (before Trout’s season debut) when Hutchison was the youngest player to appear in an AL game.

Anyway, following up from the post a few days ago on tenured teammates, I started thinking about other times when the youngest and oldest player in a league have been teammates. After the jump, I’ll take a look at this curiosity.

Using B-R’s season “Other Leaders” page, these are the teams to have the youngest and oldest players in the league on the team’s roster. This doesn’t necessarily mean that both players were on the team roster and the same time during the season. The legend is as follows:

  • GREEN – players appeared together in one or more games
  • BLUE – players were in starting lineup for one or more games
  • PURPLE – both players are pitchers, and one relieved the other (appeared consecutively as pitchers) in one or more games
  • RED – one player is a pitcher, and was pinch-hit for by the other player in one or more games.
  • BROWN – one player is a pitcher and entered the game one or more times after the other player pinch-hit for the previous pitcher
Year League Team Oldest Youngest
2006 AL SEA Jamie Moyer Felix Hernandez
2006 NL NYM Julio Franco Lastings Milledge
2005 AL SEA Jamie Moyer Felix Hernandez
1999 AL BAL Jesse Orosco Matt Riley
1994 AL SEA Goose Gossage Alex Rodriguez
1992 AL TEX Nolan Ryan Ivan Rodriguez
1989 NL CIN Kent Tekulve Rosario Rodriguez
1984 AL NYY Phil Niekro Jose Rijo
1983 AL SEA Gaylord Perry Edwin Nunez
1982 AL SEA Gaylord Perry Edwin Nunez
1980 AL CHW Minnie Minoso Ricky Seilheimer
1980 NL LAD Vic Davalillo Fernando Valenzuela
1969 AL CAL Hoyt Wilhelm  Lloyd Allen
1969 NL ATL Hoyt Wilhelm Mike McQueen
1965 NL NYM Warren Spahn Jim Bethke
1961 AL KCA Bob Boyd Lew Krausse
1957 AL CHW Ellis Kinder Jim Derrington
1956 AL CHW Ellis Kinder Jim Derrington
1954 AL WSH Connie Marrero Harmon Killebrew
1951 NL CHC Dutch Leonard Harry Chiti
1950 AL CHW Luke Appling Joe Kirrene
1950 NL CHC Dutch Leonard Harry Chiti
1942 AL CLE Joe Heving Ted Sepkowski
1938 AL SLB Fred Johnson Johnny Lucadello
1932 AL CHW Red Faber Clarence Fieber
1929 NL BSN Johnny Evers Bill Dunlap
1921 AL SLB Jimmy Austin Dutch Henry
1920 NL PHI Gavvy Cravath Lefty Weinert
1919 NL PHI Gavvy Cravath Lefty Weinert

After coming up with this list, my first thought was to make this a quiz – “What have the Mariners and White Sox franchises each done 5 times that only one other franchise has done more than twice?” But, I’m not that mean.

Some musings on this list:

  • On Oct 1, 1950, Luke Appling played his final career game, and recorded his final hit. Next to him on the diamond was Joe Kirenne making his career debut, and getting his first hit.  Both played the entire game. On the same day, the NL’s youngest and oldest appeared together for the first time for Chicago’s other team, with Harry Chiti collecting the first two hits of his career.
  • Nolan Ryan and Ivan Rodriguez started for the Rangers 20 times (out of Ryan’s 27 starts) in 1992. Lastings Milledge and Julio Franco did the same 10 times for the 2006 Mets.
  • Hoyt Wilhelm has the distinction of showing up on this list for both leagues, and in the same season.
  • The Johnny Evers game was an end-of-the-year shenanigan, 7 years after his last appearance and 12 years after last playing semi-regularly. Both players, though, were on the field to finish the game.
  • Though Vic Davalillo and Fernando Valenzuela both played only in the final 3 weeks of the 1980 season, they managed to appear together 5 times, three of them with Valenzuela following Davalillo into the game after the latter had pinch-hit for the pitcher. 

One other unusual find is this game from 1953. Not related to teammates, but the oldest and youngest players in the league (Satchel Paige and Bob Miller) were opposing starters (Paige got the win, the last of his career). Don’t know if that has happened any other time – guess I’ll have to find out.

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Hartvig
Hartvig
11 years ago

I had to go check out Ever’s BR profile before I read far enough to see your comment about it because I was certain you had the date wrong and it was supposed to be 1919. The Minoso appearance in 1980 was a stunt too of course but one they repeated twice. Those appearances he made in 1976 and 1980 actually cost him a point off of his career batting average.

Jimbo
Jimbo
11 years ago

Lol at Moyer being the oldest player in the league in 2005.

Big Daddy V
Big Daddy V
11 years ago

Newly Learned Facts About Doug: He may be color blind.

Doug
Doug
11 years ago

Big Daddy,

I’ll have to go back and recolor those links. Thought they had changed color because I had visited them, but they would revert to original color for everyone else. Apparently not.

Shping
Shping
11 years ago

Bummer news about Rockies releasing Moyer. Great career Jamie! — hope its not over yet. Frickin Jim Tracy couldve showed more class with his comments, too. Moyer pitched pretty well until last couple starts.

Lawrence Azrin
Lawrence Azrin
11 years ago
Reply to  Shping

Moyer was 58th in the NL in IP, but gave up the second- most hits. He also had the worst WHIP and was near the bottom in ERA and ERA% amongst league qualifiers, so this should come as no surprise.

He did set a whole bunch of “oldest…” records (not just for pitching).

Jeff
Jeff
11 years ago
Reply to  Lawrence Azrin

Moyer did get bombed his last couple of starts and that’s all on him, but he was mismanaged by Tracy in several starts before that. I agree with yanking him from the starting rotation but think he should have been given a chance as a middle reliever. Just don’t let him go through the lineup more than once and try to use him after a pitcher with a big fastball. And there’s one pitcher worse than Moyer who still has a job: Esmil Rogers. He’s the worst pitcher in the major leagues. Why is he allowed to pitch at all?… Read more »

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