6 degrees

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

I haven't tried yet, but with Pujols retirement after a 20+ year career, I was wondering, can you get from Cap Anson to Pujols in 6 players using only teammates, no managers? (basically you can only have 4 in between)

[Fred]

I'm an idiot so it could help me if you could clarify what you mean be going from Anson to Pujols in 6 players.

I'm sure when you provide the explanation I will roll my eyes at myself, as usual.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Fred

..:clarify what you mean be going from Anson to Pujols in 6 players…

Cap Anson played through 1897. Find a player whose career started by no later than that. Then do the same for the end of that player’s career. The trick would be finding a total of four players to bridge the gap between 1897 and 2001.

[Eric72]

Minnie Minoso had a career that spanned from 1946-1980.

Rickey Henderson 1979-2003.

Can we get from 1897-1946 in two players?

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Eric72

Minnie Minoso had a career that spanned from 1946-1980.

Rickey Henderson 1979-2003.

Can we get from 1897-1946 in two players?

They have to be teammates

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

They have to be teammates

Just re-read the OP. Sorry.

OK, exit stage left.

[Eric72]

Biz Mackey 1920-1947

Can we get 1897-1920?

[JollyElm]

Do managers (who once played) count here? If so, if you can get him to Connie Mack, that helps cover over half a century with a single individual.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Fred

I'm an idiot so it could help me if you could clarify what you mean be going from Anson to Pujols in 6 players.

I'm sure when you provide the explanation I will roll my eyes at myself, as usual.

No you're right, I wasn't clear. Like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Instead of actor to movie chains, it would be teammates. So if someone played with Pujols they would be one degree away. If someone played with someone who played with Pujols that guy would be 2 degrees away, etc.

[jcmtiger]

Originally Posted by Fred

I'm an idiot so it could help me if you could clarify what you mean be going from Anson to Pujols in 6 players.

I'm sure when you provide the explanation I will roll my eyes at myself, as usual.

Did not understand either.

[Peter_Spaeth]

It's interesting how many players with very long careers were on the same team at the respective beginning and end of their careers.

Spahn and Niekro
Niekro and Glavine
Early Wynn and Tommy John
Brooks Robinson and Eddie Murray
Pete Rose and Julio Franco perhaps
Williams and Yaz of course did not overlap but one followed the other

[Rad_Hazard]

Best I could do with getting from 1871 to Pujols (I know that wasn't the assignment) was 8 degrees:

[Peter_Spaeth]

O Leary came back after 11 years for one at bat, that should not count. Neither should Minoso's guest appearances decades after he retired. Move to strike.

[MVSNYC]

As David M. said (Hi David!), Baseball Reference has the (amazing) Oracle feature. Best it can do is 7 players between them. I think trying to have any less (let alone 4) players in-between them is simply an unreasonable ask. Way too many decades (centuries, literally) apart.

[Rad_Hazard]

Exactly, there are a handful of variations of 7 players (9 including Anson and Pujols).

[raulus]

Anson last played in 1897? Pujols started in 2001. So 104 years between them.

We would need 4 players who played in succession for 26 years each. Maybe a little longer to get some overlap.

I suppose it’s possible, but it might be a stretch, considering even the longest careers don’t go for much more than 20ish years.

Might help if we can line up with Satchel Paige in the middle…

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Bet I've got so far:

Anson - Dahlen
Dahlen - Wheat
Wheat - Foxx
Foxx- Hamner
Hamner - Fred Norman
Fred Norman - Tim Raines
Tim Raines - Jason Isringhausen
Isringhausen - Pujols


What hurts is Raines overlapped Pujols, but didn't play with him. Feels like a wasted step. So I'm at 8 feel like 7 might be possible.

Might try a path through Clark Griffiths instead of Bill Dahlen

[sbfinley]

Edit: Didn’t catch the manager part.


Closest I could get was:

John Menefee (1) played for Anson for the Giants in 1898.
Menefee played for Connie Mack (2) in Pitt in 1895.
Bobby Shantz (3) played for Mack in Philadelphia in 1949.
Shantz played with Roger Craig (4) in St.Louis in 1964.
Craig managed Will Clark (5) in the early 90’s in San Fran.
Clark retired as a Cardinal in September 2000, 7 months before Pujols’ (6) amazing rookie season.

You could go from Shantz to Bob Uecker, who called the Pujols’ career against the Brewers.

[frankbmd]

This is really productive minutia...

(I know who's buried in Grant's Tomb.)

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

If someone can find a teammate that Hough and Pujols shared that would help me out. There HAS to be one, no?

Anson - Griffith
Griffith - Emil Meusel
Meusel - Ott
Ott - Whitey Lockman (you could also go to Bobby Thompson here, who misses Yaz by a year in Boston argh)
Lockman - Claude Osteen
Osteen - Hough or Brian Downing or Chet Lemon you'd think one of these guys would ahve a teammate in common with Pujols but I can't find one.
Hough, Downing, Lemon - ?

Actually not the most efficient list, but it's s tough game!

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

If someone can find a teammate that Hough and Pujols shared that would help me out. There HAS to be one, no?

Anson - Griffith
Griffith - Emil Meusel
Meusel - Ott
Ott - Whitey Lockman (you could also go to Bobby Thompson here, who misses Yaz by a year in Boston argh)
Lockman - Claude Osteen
Osteen - Hough
Hough - ?

Actually not the most efficient list, but it's s tough game!

Are we allowed more than 4 in between?

[BobbyStrawberry]

Going backward, this could be start of a chain...

Pujols
Chuck Finley (2002 Cards)
Don Sutton (1986 Angels)

[EGreenwood]

It will be interesting to see if this is possible. I hit a dead end at the combo below, and would still be stuck at 10.

(22 STL) Albert Pujols
(01 STL) Mark McGwire
(86 OAK) Dusty Baker
(68 ATL) Hank Aaron
(54 MIL)Warren Spahn
(42 BOS N) Paul Waner
(26 PIT) Stuffy McInnis
(09 PHI A) ???
???
(71 ROK NA) Cap Anson

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by EGreenwood

It will be interesting to see if this is possible. I hit a dead end at the combo below, and would still be stuck at 10.

(22 STL) Albert Pujols
(01 STL) Mark McGwire
(86 OAK) Dusty Baker
(68 ATL) Hank Aaron
(54 MIL)Warren Spahn
(42 BOS N) Paul Waner
(26 PIT) Stuffy McInnis
(09 PHI A) ???
???
(71 ROK NA) Cap Anson

Harry Davis played with McInnis and overlapped, but didn't team with Anson.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Bonilla was on the 2001 Cardinals, I think he overlapped with end of career Carlton, so that gets you back to what 1965 Cardinals. From there Curt Simmons maybe? He goes back to the late 40s.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

Going backward, this could be start of a chain...

Pujols
Chuck Finley (2002 Cards)
Don Sutton (1986 Angels)

well you can go Sutton to Osteen and then your on my chain but that's wasting about 6 or 7 years of Sutton.

Could go Sutton to Gilliam
Gilliam to Roe
Roe to Guy Bush
Bush to Pete Alexander
Alexander to a bunch of guys who come up just short of 1897 and obviously weren't teammates of Anson. Best I could do in that direction

[EGreenwood]

Worked from Anson and still got to 10 through the Dodgers:

(71 ROK NA) Cap Anson
(97 Chi NL) Clark Griffith
(14 WAS) Irish Meusel
(27 BRO) Babe Herman
(45 BRO) Ralph Branca
(56 BRO) Don Drysdale
(69 LA N) Bill Russell
(86 LA N) Tom Niedenfuer
(90 STL) Ray Lankford
(01 STL) Albert Pujols
(22 STL)

[terjung]

Maybe Joe Nuxhall could help if you count his playing days (starting in 1944) through his announcing days (which started immediately after playing and gets you to Pujols)... but I figure that is against the rules.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

well you can go Sutton to Osteen and then your on my chain but that's wasting about 6 or 7 years of Sutton.

Could go Sutton to Gilliam
Gilliam to Roe
Roe to Guy Bush
Bush to Pete Alexander
Alexander to a bunch of guys who come up just short of 1897 and obviously weren't teammates of Anson. Best I could do in that direction

I got stuck on Pete Alexander, too...

There has to be a more efficient route, but I think this works at 10 players

Pujols
Finley (02 Cards)
Sutton (86 Angels)
Dick Schofield (66 Dodgers)
Stan Musial (53 Cards)
Gus Mancuso (41 Cards)
Rabbit Maranville (28 Cards)
Johnny Kling (1912 Boston NL)
Clark Griffith (1900 Chicago NL)
Anson (1897 Chicago NL)

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Are we allowed more than 4 in between?

That's the goal, but I don't think it's possible. Best I can do is 7 so far.

[Schlesinj]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

I haven't tried yet, but with Pujols retirement after a 20+ year career, I was wondering, can you get from Cap Anson to Pujols in 6 players using only teammates, no managers? (basically you can only have 4 in between)

Scott did you know the guys that started 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon?

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Schlesinj

Scott did you know the guys that started 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon?

I was a year behind them in school at Albright. Of course the story of it's origins is a little different now than what I heard when it all went down, which was that they were stoned off their asses watching Tremors.