Miles's blog

Jamie Moyer of the Rockies yesterday became the oldest pitcher in major league history to win a game.  He beat the record of some otherwise pitcher from the 20s and 30s named Jack Quinn who managed to secure a win at the age of 49 years and 70 days old.  Moyer is 49 years and 150 days old.  Moyer’s achievement, as impressive as it seems, is made all the more so when considering that Quinn did not start that game, entering as a relief pitcher in the sixth inning, and going five innings as his team won in the 10^th inning.  In fact Quinn, who won three games that year, did not start a single game.  Moyer has already started three games for the Rockies, and has been their most effective starter.

Moyer is only a year and four months younger than the President, which means he is several years older than Obama when the President took office.  In fact, Moyer is older than nine presidents were when they took office.  (Polk, Pierce, Grant, Garfield, Cleveland, T. Roosevelt, JFK, Clinton, and Obama).  

Moyer is older than eight major league managers, and those who hit off him had little success.   (Joe Girardi was 1 for 13; Ozzie Guillen .182; Mike Matheny .133; Dale Sveum 0 for 1.  Robin Ventura did hit .333). 

Moyer pitched his first game on June 16, 1986.  Madonna’s “Live to Tell” was the number 1 record.  The top 30 included Whitney Houston, the Moody Blues, Culture Club, George Michael, OMD, and The Bangles.  “Top Gun” was the highest-grossing movie (although the rest of the top 10 were lame).  “The Cosby Show” was the most popular show on television, followed by “Family Ties,” “Murder She Wrote,” and “Who’s the Boss.”  

Nelson Mandela was in prison.  Ronald Regan was in the White House.  Steve Jobs was running Pixar.  Apple stock closed at $35.88.  (Yesterday it closed at $609.70.)  The best-selling vehicle in America was a Ford F-series pick-up.  Gas was $1.74 a gallon.  Cell phones looked like bricks.  IBM had just released its first laptop computer, the Convertible.  It cost $2000 and weighed 13 pounds.  Moyer made the major league minimum salary of $60,000.  (Today the minimum is $480,000.)  That $60,000 is worth about $123,000 in today’s dollars.

When Moyer pitched that game his teammates included Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith, and Dennis Eckersley, who are in the Hall of Fame, and Raphael Palmeiro, who never will be.  Later that year the Cubs called up a prospect named Greg Maddux.  Maddux lasted 23 years and won 355 games, retiring two years ago.  The oldest player on the Cubs was Davey Lopes.  Lopes broke in with the Dodgers in 1971, when his teammates included Maury Wills, Frank Robinson, and Tommy John before his surgery.  Terry Francona, late of the Boston Red Sox, rode the bench for the Cubs.  In the bullpen was George Frazier, now one of the Rockies television broadcasters.

Moyer’s opponent in his first game was the Philadephia Philles whose starting pitcher was Hall of Famer Steve Carlton.  Moyer outpitched Carlton, the first of Moyer’s 268 wins.  Moyer faced current Milwaukee Brewer manager Ron Roenicke as his first hitter—Roenicke doubled.  Roenicke’s nephew Josh is now a teammate of Moyer’s on the Rockies.  The Phillies also featured Mike Schmidt who was inducted into the Hall of Fame 17 years ago.  The broadcasters included Lou Boudreau, a Hall of Fame player from the 1940s.

Moyer’s next start didn’t go so well.  He faced the Phillies again and gave up six earned runs in two and two-thirds innings.  He was relieved by Frazier who did even worse, giving up eight earned runs in two and one-third innings.  Moyer gave up Schmidt’s 471^st home run.  (Schmidt hit Moyer pretty good in his career, .444 with two homers in 27 at-bats.)

Moyer demonstrates a classic example of tenacity.  His early career had only a modicum of success—one winning season before age 30.  In 1991 after five major league season for three different teams he was sent to the minors at age 28, where he languished for two years until making a return for a fourth team.  When he made his comeback at age 30 he was 34-54 lifetime, with an ERA of 4.56 much higher than the league.  In short, he was bad.  He improved slightly over the next three years, going 25-22 with an ERA of 4.41. However, Baltimore gave up on him and released him that winter.  The Red Sox picked him up, and he rewarded them by going 7-1, albeit with an ERA of 4.50.  At the trade deadline the Sox sent him to Seattle for Darren Bragg, a mediocre hitter and indifferent fielder.  Moyer, on the other hand, seemed to have found himself at age 33.  At the time of the trade he was 66-77.   Since then he is 202-129.  He won 20 games for the first time at age 38, and again at age 40.  In his 40s he is 104-81.  

Perhaps the most amazing thing at all about Jamie Moyer is that he missed all of 2011 recuperating from Tommy John Surgery.  When he announced he would return we all laughed. I did.  Now, who knows how long he can pitch.  Probably until his legs give out.   His arm, it seems, is some sort of biological freak.