Billy Werber, currently the oldest living major leaguer, got some press last month from USA Today, the New York Times and others on the occasion of his centennial birthday.
He’s certainly a great story and a notable figure in and of himself. He played with Babe Ruth, won a World Series ring with the Cincinnati Reds, thrice led the league in stolen bases and was the first batter in the first game ever televised.
But the stories led me to wonder: Who died and made Werber baseball’s longevity champ.
With a little bit of programming and data from the Baseball Databank, I came up with this list of 37 players:
name birth death age Harry Wright 1835-01-10 1895-10-03 60 Dickey Pearce 1836-02-29 1908-09-18 72 Al Barker 1839-01-18 1912-09-15 73 Al Reach 1840-05-25 1928-01-14 87 Harry Berthrong 1844-01-01 1928-04-28 84 Phonney Martin 1845-08-04 1933-05-24 87 Harry Schafer 1846-08-14 1935-02-28 88 George Wright 1847-01-28 1937-08-21 90 John McKelvey 1847-08-27 1944-05-31 96 Jack Gleason 1854-07-14 1944-09-04 90 James Lehan 1856-05-14 1946-07-18 90 Henry Jones 1857-05-10 1955-05-31 98 John Leighton 1861-10-04 1956-10-31 95 Dummy Hoy 1862-05-23 1961-12-15 99 Buster Burrell 1866-12-22 1962-05-08 95 Bill Kinsler 1867-11-09 1963-08-10 95 John Grimes 1869-04-17 1964-01-17 94 John Hollison 1870-05-03 1969-08-19 99 Ralph Miller 1873-03-15 1973-05-08 100 Charlie Emig 1875-04-05 1975-10-02 100 Paddy Livingston 1880-01-14 1977-09-19 97 Sam Edmonston 1883-08-30 1979-04-12 95 Red Morgan 1883-10-06 1981-03-25 97 Jack Snyder 1886-10-06 1981-12-13 95 Carl Manda 1886-11-16 1983-03-09 96 John Daley 1887-05-25 1988-08-31 101 Bill Otis 1889-12-24 1990-12-15 100 Chet Hoff 1891-05-08 1998-09-17 107 Ike Kahdot 1899-10-22 1999-03-31 99 Karl Swanson 1900-12-17 2002-04-03 101 Ralph Erickson 1902-06-25 2002-06-27 100 Ray Hayworth 1904-01-29 2002-09-25 98 Paul Hopkins 1904-09-25 2004-01-02 99 Ray Cunningham 1905-01-17 2005-07-30 100 Howdy Groskloss 1906-04-10 2006-07-15 100 Ray Berres 1907-08-31 2007-02-01 99 Billy Werber 1908-06-20 Alive 100
A few interesting tidbits:
- There are two brothers, Harry and George Wright.
- There are two Hall of Famers on the list: The Wright brothers.
- If you’ve never heard of most of these guys, you’re not alone. Four played in only one major league game. Seven more played in fewer than 10 games.
- Oldest former major leaguer ever: Chet Hoff, who played in the American League from 1911 to 1915 and died in 1998 at the age of 107.
Obviously, this list does not include players whose dates of birth or death are not known. As of 2006, there were 300 “missing” players — presumed dead — whose dates of death are not known, according to SABR’s Biographical Research Committee. There were 600 more players whose dates of birth were not known.
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