Oldest Living Major League Ballplayer?
 

As I was working on a list of who is still alive that appeared in the 1952 Topps set....I think I discovered that Connie Marerro is 101 and I think he is still kicking. Anybody know an older major leaguer that's still around? Aloha,Dave.

In the last couple of days, there was a story written about this. Marrero is the oldest (101) and is living in Cuba.

The apartment he is living in isn't very nice and he has some medical problems. The MLBPA has $20,000 for him but because of the embargo and because intermediaries aren't allowed to handle the cash, Marrero hasn't been able to get the money.

David

My former neighbor Wayne Terwilliger is turning 87 this year and still coaching down in Texas with the Fort Worth cats. He came up in 1950 with the cubs.

Bobby Doerr is up there. Oh sorry didn't see the 52 Topps thing.

I think Bobby Doerr is the last living player in the 41 Playball set.

Virgil Trucks the second oldest living player in the '52 Topps set is celebrating his 95th birthday today. Happy birthday Virgil!! Trucks is the uncle of Butch Trucks, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band incidentally. Ace Parker who played 94 games for the 1937-38 Philadelphia A's turns 100 on May 17th. He was never in baseball card set but was in the 1955 Topps All-American football set having also had a hall of fame pro football career.

Johnny Pesky is 92...not the oldest, but definitely deserves mention!

Current Ten Oldest Players
Name Birthdate Years Played
Connie Marrero April 25, 1911 1950 - 1954
Ace Parker May 17, 1912 1937 - 1938
Mike Sandlock October 17, 1915 1942 - 1953
Freddy Schmidt February 9, 1916 1944 - 1947
Art Kenney April 26, 1916 1938
Ray Hathaway October 13, 1916 1945
Eddie Carnett October 21, 1916 1941 - 1945
Moon Mullen February 9, 1917 1944
Alex Monchak March 5, 1917 1940
Virgil Trucks April 26, 1917 1941 - 1958

Baseball-reference.com

Hall of Famers

The oldest living Hall of Famer is currently Lee MacPhail (born October 25, 1917) at age 94. The oldest Hall of Famer to be inducted as a player is Bobby Doerr (born April 7, 1918) who is 93.

Seeing Pesky and Doerr at the Fenway ceremony was chilling, even for this Yankee fan!!!

If Bobby Doerr was born April 7, 1918, he is currently 94.

He just missed on '52T, but Jamie Moyer has to be right up there. :D

<<He just missed on '52T, but Jamie Moyer has to be right up there. >>

:D +1 (or should I say 101?)

Virgil Trucks has to be one of the nicest players ever, and as far as I know, still loves corresponding with fans. A true legend and a true gentleman!

I did an article for the site I write for a couple months back about the ten oldest living Pirates players

http://blogs.piratesprospects.com/hi...burgh-pirates/

ball players
 

Funny you should post that. Im very good friends with Mike Sandlocks Son. He lives about 10 minutes from me. I just gave him a call and may be seeing Mike next week. At 96 he is still very active! And still golfs! I will try and get some pictures if I go !

Name Birthdate Years Played
Connie Marrero April 25, 1911 1950 - 1954


Wow, Connie Marrero was 39 in his rookie year. That by itself is impressive.

Ace Parker will be 100 next month. He played for the Athletics in 1936-7. As far as I know, he doesn't appear on any baseball cards. He also played pro football and is a fellow Dukie.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Connie Marrero in Havana last year only weeks before his 100th birthday. As it turned out, he became the the oldest living Major League player during my visit to Cuba (sadly, due to the passing of Dodgers' third baseman Tony Malinowsky).

We did a mini-article on Marrero in the February 2011 issue of the Old Cardboard eNewsletter. It includes a video that I recorded when our group visited Marrero's apartment in Havana. Needless to say, the event was most memorable.

Lyman

If he wants to do a short interview for the site I will gladly give him a feature article. Would love to hear from the old-time players, especially the oldest Pirates player!

Marrero warming up his knuckler at 100

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4023/4...8b05c266_z.jpg

Follow up on Mike Sandlock
 

I wanted to post about a great day that I had with Mike Sandlock. Im very good friends with his son so I asked him if I could come over and have a nice talk with his Father. Well let me tell you what a time I had! There couldnt be a nicer man to speak to and at coming to 97 let me tell you he had some of the best stories to tell. He talked about Jackie Robinson and how he came up and became a friend of Jackies and golfed with him for many years after baseball. And at 97 he still tries to golf at least 5-6 holes a week! I asked him who was his best influence upon him as he came up and he said Bill Dickey. I asked him which pitchers he thought were some of the best that he caught he said Spahn, (told me he caught him when he was young in the 3 I league they both came up in 42) Don Newcombe,Allie Reynolds, and Carl Furillo. He made a joke about when he came up in 1942 and had 1 at bat and singled he said I batted 1000 that year! Said he loved his time playing in the Pacific Coast League for the Hollywoood Stars best time of his life, I was able to see alot of the country and his oldest son was the bat boy for them and the Boston Braves. I asked him if he had ever been hurt and he told me all about how his career ending injury and if it wasnt for the Pirates doctor puting him in the hospital and draining his knee (he said it looked like custard) when they needled it out that the infection was so bad that he might have lost his leg. I could go on and on as we talked for about 2 hours. I asked him to sign a few things for me and I think he was quite thrilled that I asked him ,he signed me a pile of 3 by 5 cards. Sorry Richard no COAs but I think the picture tells the story! We took some pictures at what he calls his memory wall! That catchers glove on the wall is one that he invented and used to catch some of the pitchers knuckle balls or Flutter balls as he called them. He still has some of his items as you can see on the wall and some nice signed photos and scrap books you can see piled up in the picture. I asked him if he still had his Uniforms from any of the teams and he said no that he had sold them years ago! By the way he is a man of modest means. I can tell you I hated to end the conversation but I think he got a great thrill out of someone younger being able to talk to him about 40-50s ball players. I held my own fairly well! But what a gentleman and great guy I met today. I do plan on going back and doing a tape recording of him because some of the stories would be ashame to lose! Also some photos of Mike and his wall! All in All Mr Sandlock is truely a great guy to talk to.

great story
 

Great story. Thanks for sharing it with us Al.....

Great stuff Al and great talking to you tonight! I could probably sit there and listen to him talk for days on end about his baseball memories

oldest living pirate
 

Thanks Leon,
John thankyou also. Boy you can tell he was a catcher when you shake his hand he has digits going every other way! John like we talked if you can break away get me a time and I will try and set something up. Would be nice to do something because I believe he is now the oldest pirate player left. Mike did say that he never thinks about age when I told him that statment about being the oldest pirate player he said how could that be Im only 69! Mike was so happy that I didnt ask him questions about statistics. He said he never gave much thought to them .Just wanted to play baseball where ever he could. Said he was working at electrolux the vacuum cleaner maker making 200 a month. When he first signed he was making 75 a month. Said he didnt care just wanted to play! We also talked about todays ballplayers and what they make ! I wont go into what he said!:eek::eek:

This is a fantastic thread.

Wikipedia actually has a great article on this that lists not only the players and their birthdays, but also the dates of their MLB debut and final game, as well as the teams they played for and the number of games.

Check it out here:

List of oldest living Major League Baseball players

Very cool to sit and talk with someone like Sandlock. Great post!

Joshua

Someone needs to fix Vic Barnhart on there, not only is his birth date wrong(he was born in 1922) the link on his page goes to a different player on baseball-reference. He was born on the same date as Joe Astroth(A's player from the 40-50's) and both are still alive at 89 years old

Al, It must be very special to meet a man such as Mr. Sandlock. I would love the oppertunity to talk to some of the founding members of baseball that are still with us.

Rawn

Mike Sandlock
 

Rawn,
Yes it was a great thrill! His son told me that he wants me to come back and for one of the board members I may be doing an interview about his time with the Pirates. He is now the oldest pirates player left. His son told me he has one of his scrap books from his pirate days on the table ready for me ! I may see him again Sunday!

With special thanks to our own Al Simeone and a huge thanks to Mike Sandlock, I present this article. What a truly fabulous interview he gave Al!

http://blogs.piratesprospects.com/hi...irates-player/

Part two tomorrow night around this time

Just to add, there will be many more quotes in tomorrow's piece. Probably could split it into three articles but I won't and won't leave out anything either.

Part two of the interview

http://blogs.piratesprospects.com/hi...view-part-two/

oldest
 

John,
Many thanks for doing the story! I know Mr Sandlock enjoyed it and I have had a ton of emails and Pms about it. Glad I was able to help! Regards Al

The pleasure was all mine Al. Hopefully he likes how it came out!

Vic Janowicz
 

As long as we're remembering multi-talented athletes, please let's include Vic, who wasn't just a college football player, but rather the winner of the 1950 Heisman, at Ohio State. The guy did everything except sell tickets, running wild at halfback, playing safety on defense, and handling the punting and place kicking duties.

But he wasn't much of a major league catcher, hitting just .214 in two seasons with the Bucs.

oldest living
 

Just a little follow up on Mike Sandlock. The Dodgers had picked up the story that John And I had Done for the pirates blog on Mr Sandlock and the Dodgers are going to honor Mike Next Saturday I believe 7/ 21/12 at Citi Field when the Dodgers play the Mets by having him throw out the first pitch on National Television for the game of the week! Way to go Mike!
At 96 years young!!!

Since we are taking about the oldest living MLB Players. This was something that was always mentioned in the past.

The Greatest Living MLB Player: I believe this is Stan Musial at 91 yrs old.

Born: November 21, 1920 (age 91

That's terrific, Al. Read a story just now from his local paper about it and he sounds thrilled about the opportunity!

oldest
 

John,
I believe he is just thrilled to death to do it! He should have a great time there!

A few photos of Emilio Navarro throwing out the first ball before a game at Yankee Stadium, September 18, 2008. At the time, he was the oldest living professional baseball player, age 102.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3039/2...3f59a327_b.jpg
(Photo taken September 18, 2008. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3171/2...40989a97_b.jpg
(Photo taken September 18, 2008. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3175/2...2fa99e64_b.jpg
(Photo taken September 18, 2008. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)


A couple of shots of him on the Diamond Vision as he counts down the number of games left at the one true Yankee Stadium from 4 to 3...

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3292/2...7a9a0504_b.jpg
(Photo taken September 18, 2008. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3252/2...23dc9e1f_b.jpg
(Photo taken September 18, 2008. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)

Mr. Navarro passed away April 30, 2011, at the age of 105.

Pictures from Mike Sandlock's day at the ballpark. Looks like he had a blast! http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/spor...#photo-3223284

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like Mr. Sandlock really had a wonderful day and it was nice to see him get his due.

Best,

Andy