A Look Back At The Absurdly Long Career Of Julio Franco

Although the ageless Julio Franco ended his Major League Baseball career last year, he was still playing in the Mexican League this season. That is until a few days ago, when he officially decided to hang up his cleats. By the way, he's 49.

Yes, you read that right. Franco retired from baseball at age 49. He'd been in pro baseball at a variety of levels for 30 years.

As crazy as that is, what's even more nuts is to look back at what transpired over the course his career after he made the majors. Franco made his MLB debut on April 23, 1982 at age 23.

• I was a one year old when he debuted in MLB. I'm currently 27.
• Jim Kaat pitched to Franco in '82, and also to Ted Williams at the beginning of Kaat's career. So Franco faced a pitcher who faced Ted Williams.
• Pitcher Edwin Nunez of the Mariners was the youngest player in baseball (19) the year Franco came into the majors. He played a total of 13 seasons in the majors … and retired 14 years ago.
• Of the current major league managers, Terry Francona, Ozzie Guillen, Eric Wedge, Mike Scioscia, Joe Girardi, John Gibbons, Trey Hillman, Bob Geren, Fredi Gonzalez, Manny Acta, John Russell and Bob Melvin are younger than Franco.
• Franco shared the field with players who made their major league debut as early as 1962.
• A sampling of players still active in 1982: Gaylord Perry, Jim Kaat, Carl Yastrzemski, Phil Niekro, Willie Stargell, Luis Tiant, Tony Perez.
• When Franco made his major league debut, Steve Carlton was his teammate … 12 years later, Carlton was elected to the Hall of Fame … 14 years after that, Franco finally retired.

If you want to go back even further in the retro time machine, let's take a look at what was going on in the world of sports the year before Franco made his MLB debut, which would be 1981.

• The average major league salary was approximately $144,000, and the average ticket price was $4.50.
• Reggie Jackson was the highest paid player in baseball, with a salary of $588,000.
• Tom Kite was the PGA's leading money winner with $375,699.
• Roger Federer hadn't even been born yet.

That's absolutely nuts. Anyway, Franco had a very productive MLB career, accumulating a career .298 average with over 2,500 hits. Personally, I think he should be in the Hall of Fame just because of long he played.

We'll miss you Julio, and your awesome batting stance.


[HT: ESPN Page 2]