Let's not forget the pitching vets

I’m going to a conference in Atlanta for a few days, and from the time I scheduled my trip, I knew I wanted to go to the Braves Home Opener.  I saw Jon Smoltz pitch against the Nationals in Washington in ’06, so I was hoping for either Tim Hudson or Tom Glavine, and was thrilled to hear that Glavine would be making his return to the Braves in a game I will attend.

Speaking of Smoltz and Glavine, I inexplicably left them out of my last post.  In fact, with the exception of Tom Gordon, I somehow left out all of the pitchers in their 40’s.  Upon further investigation, here they are:

Jon Smoltz (40)

Tom Glavine (42 just this week)

Greg Maddux (42 next month)

Tom Gordon (40)

Randy Johnson (44)

David Wells (44)

Jamie Moyer (45)

Curt Schilling (41)

Kenny Rogers (43)

Tim Wakefield (41)

Woody Williams (41)

Orlando Hernandez (42, though he claims to be four years younger)

Mike Timlin (42) 

Shortly after my last post, in which I noted 41-year-old Jeff Conine’s unofficial retirement, the situation was cleared up.  Nicknamed “Mr. Marlin,” Conine chose to sign a one-day contract with his beloved Marlins, who face the New York Yankees in an exhibition game at Dolphin Stadium today, then retire.  Niner’s best season was 1995, when he batted .302, hit 25 home runs, drove in 105 runs, slugged .520, and was named MVP of the All-Star game after hitting a game-winning home run in the eighth inning.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, let’s take a look at a few of the youngest major leaguers.  Jarrod Saltalamacchia (just sent to the minors but should be Texas’s starting catcher before long) is four and a half months older than I am, Joba Chamberlain was born the day after I was, and Felix Hernandez is six and a half months younger than I am.  That these kids have made such a huge splash in the bigs at such a young age (they will all be 22 after King Felix’s birthday 10 days from now) is remarkable when you remember that big-name players like Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling and even Mariano Rivera were in their mid-to-late twenties before baseball fans all over knew who they were.

Lastly, props to Jim Caple, who called Prince Fielder “the largest vegetarian since Stegosaurus.”  Let’s see how long it takes until Prince’s diet goes extinct.