Ode to the Aging Athletes in Cardinal Red
The St. Louis Cardinals will embark tomorrow on their 134th season and for the first time will have three players in their starting lineup who have passed their 4th decade – Albert Pujols at 42 (though some have claimed he’s actually several years older), Adam Wainwright at 40, and Yadier Molina who will turn 40 on July 13th.
None of these elder statesmen are anywhere near the age of the oldest baseball player in MLB history – the great Satchel Paige, who pitched three scoreless innings for the Kansas City Athletics against the Boston Red Sox at age 59 as part of a marketing gimmick by flamboyant owner Charlie Finley! But that was for only one game in 1965 and after a 12 year hiatus from playing pro ball. And Satchel was the only geriatric participant that day – the next oldest player in the A’s lineup (third baseman Wayne Causey) was merely 29.
The three venerable Redbirds who will take the field tomorrow are not just distinguished by their collective 120+ years but by their remarkable careers.
Pujols is a certain Hall of Famer. He has led the League at least one season in virtually every significant offensive category: hits, runs, doubles, home runs, RBI’s, batting average, on base percentage, slugging % and OPS. His career numbers are nearly Ruthian with over 3300 hits, close to 700 Home Runs, more than 2000 RBI’s and the highest career WAR of any active player by far. Enough said.
Molina is also most assuredly a Hall of Famer when he finally decides to give up his squatting – as the best defensive catcher of his generation. He is a 9-time Gold Glover (only catchers’ Pudge Rodriguez and Johnny Bench have more) who has thrown out over 40% of would-be base stealers in his career (and deterred the most runners from even trying). More importantly, he has massaged the Cardinals’ mostly marginal pitching staffs over his 18 years to the second best ERA in the League over that time span and led his team to 17 out of 18 winning seasons! While his offensive prowess is less compelling, he has collected over 2000 hits and will likely finish as having the 4th most hits by a catcher in MLB history.
And I would submit that there’s no player in baseball history who has demonstrated a more impressive longevity than Yadi. Sure Cal Ripken’s streak of playing in 2632 straight games is pretty astonishing (although he likely shouldn’t have played at times given some really bad slumps). And the great Nolan Ryan pitched for a jaw-dropping 27 seasons! But neither ever played the game’s most physically demanding position by far – where you squat literally for more than an hour each night while balls and bat fragments routinely hit you in the face, neck, shoulder, hands, legs and groin. Molina caught the most games in the National League for 8 seasons, including last year at age 39! If he can stay healthy this year Molina will have caught the second most games of any catcher in baseball history.
While his long-time battery mate and buddy Wainwright will probably not make the Hall, he’s had a phenomenal career as well and is a Hall of Fame person, as perhaps the nicest guy in the League. And even he has an argument for Hall of Fame consideration, with the best curve ball of his generation, 184 wins against only 105 losses, a career ERA of 3.35 and someone who has finished in the top two or three pitchers in the Cy Young race four separate times. Waino has also been a great post-season performer – no player was more responsible for the Cardinal’s 2006 World Series than he with 9 post season appearances, allowing no runs and closing out both the Mets (Beltran) and Tigers (Inge) in dramatic strikeout fashion. Although his career WAR is not overwhelming, it’s still better than 15 pitchers who have made the Hall of Fame. So IF Uncle Charlie were to have a monster year in 2022 , get to 200 wins and win his first Cy Young Award (I know, a big stretch) it’s certainly possible.
What makes having this triumvirate of senior baseball royalty on one team all the more remarkable is the increasing preference in today’s professional sports world for younger players. They are faster, less likely to get injured and quicker to recover if they do, have their best years ahead of them and, perhaps most importantly for the owners, cost a LOT less. There is huge financial incentive under baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement to employ less experienced players: players only receive the stipulated minimum salary for their first 3 years of service time and a less-than-market arbitration value for the next 3 years (absent agreeing to a long-term contract that buys out these years at less than market value). And given the luxury tax which few franchises are willing to pay, the teams need a heavy dose of cheaper players to offset the few players who make astronomical sums and fill out their rosters. Of the Cardinals 40-man roster, for example, only 8 players have 6 years of service time and thus qualify for free agency. Each of these aging stars took less money than their market value in order to play together one last time.
The uniqueness of the Cardinals’ threesome is amplified when you consider the typical lifespan of a ballplayer. The average Major League Baseball player’s career lasts only about 5 and 1/2 years. Pujols, Molina and Wainwright have combined for 55 seasons thus far! If you exclude veterans Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, this trio has played about the same number of seasons of baseball as the the rest of their 25 man roster COMBINED.
Other sports also have some ageless wonders. In the NFL there’s the incomparable Tom Brady who recently announced that he plans to play the dangerous sport of football for another season at the ripe age of 45 (much to the chagrin of one fan who bought the last TD pass of his career for more than $500,000 only hours before he reneged on his 40-day retirement). Fortunately for Tom, his position doesn’t require speed, other than getting rid of the ball very quickly to avoid being brutally punished.
That’s something that the massive Zdeno Chara can’t say. At 45, the 6 foot 9 Slovak is still somehow enduring the rigors of the fastest team sport on earth, playing nearly every hockey game and averaging more than 18 minutes each night, though unlike Brady, his offensive numbers have slipped considerably.
The NBA’s oldest player is the Miami Heat’s Udonis Haslem at only 41. But he has never been a great NBA player, hasn’t played a full season in seven years and has only started 2 games in that entire timespan.
In soccer, there is only one player in the world’s top league – the English Premier League- in his fourth decade, Southampton’s Willy Caballero who is 40. But he’s a goalie who rarely plays.
In short, no professional team in any major sport has ever had three “starters”, much less career superstars, in their 40’s playing at the same time (to the best of my knowledge).
So fans of the Cardinals, baseball and all sports should relish this rarest of circumstances while it lasts. Who knows if we will ever see anything like this again? And who knows how long before one or more of these guys goes down to injury or their skills deteriorate below the Mendoza line?
Soak it in! Play Ball! And Go Cards!
