The Old Gray Mare
Gene Steinmeyer
The news this week has been filled with Alex Rodriguez. For once, the news on Alex isn’t dominated by steroid or growth hormone accusations. Remember his news conference about eight years ago? “I was young, I was naive and I was stupid…”
This time, he hit a home run on his 40th birthday. That came on the heels of hitting a home run for his 3,000th hit. He’s knocking them out of the park with great regularity this season. That begs the question: What’s in his new diet?
I was trying to think of my greatest athletic achievement after the age of 40. When I couldn’t think of any, I lowered the age to 30. That drew a blank, too, so I went to my college days. The only accomplishment that came to mind was my team finished the Bike Bowl. We didn’t win it but I don’t think we finished last. I do remember I was so tired I could barely walk back to my dorm room.
The Rocket, Roger Clemens, won a Cy Young after turning 40. At age 42, he won 18 games for the Houston Astros and the coveted award given to the best pitcher in the National League. Sadly, it later was tarnished when stories of his steroid use surfaced. I wonder if the Rocket and A-Rod had the same doctor.
Speaking of juicing, the face of the steroid era, Barry Bonds, did something just as amazing at age 42. He hit .362, hit 45 home runs and drove in 101 runs. For his heroics, Bonds won his seventh MVP award. Then he made the mistake of testifying in front of Congress, denying he ever used the needle. The rest is history.
Some substances, like steroids and growth hormones, are considered reasons for Hall of Fame bans. I doubt if the Rocket or Bonds will ever be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame.
There’s one guy in the Hall of Fame that earned the Cy Young Award at the same age Roger Clemens earned his. By all accounts, he cheated almost every time he took the mound. Instead of needles and pills, Gaylord Perry used K-Y Jelly, Vaseline, saliva, fishing line wax, resin, sweat and dirt.
Perry didn’t juice himself, he juiced the baseball. One of his catchers said the ball was so covered in illegal substances at times, he couldn’t throw the ball back to Perry. Even when umpires made a major effort to stop the “spit balls,” Perry got into the batters’ heads.
He would grab the bill of his cap, rub his uniform sleeve, hike up his belt, rub behind his ears and anything else he could do to convince the hitters he was juicing the ball. This year, two pitchers were suspended for having a foreign substance on their arm or neck. Perry would never be that obvious.
Nolan Ryan was never accused of using a foreign substances or juicing. Whatever genes he owned led to an amazingly long major league career. He threw an unbelievable seven no-hitters. The last of which came at age 44.
Jamie Moyer was that left-handed pitcher that just kept winning. He won his last major league game at age 49. Other baseball icons played into their 40s. The home run king — until Bonds started juicing — Hank Aaron played until he was 42. Pete Rose was a player-coach at age 45. However, he probably needed to play that long to pay off his gambling debts.
Other sports have famous athletes that have defied the test of time. Gordie Howe scored 44 goals and had 100 points in hockey at age 40. George Foreman won a World’s Heavyweight Championship when he was 45. I’ll bet he had his grill going non-stop.
George Blanda of the hated Oakland Raiders led his team to a conference championship game as a backup quarterback and field goal kicker. The first-string quarterback was often injured, so the graying Blanda saw a lot of action.
He killed me when he kicked a 50-yard field goal to beat the Kansas City Chiefs late that season. It was more than 40 years ago, but I remember it was like yesterday as that kick barely cleared the crossbar.
My absolute favorite old-timer accomplishment happened right in Kansas City. Satchel Paige, the famous Negro Leagues pitcher, made his final major league appearance at old Municipal Stadium at age 59. It was more than a token appearance, too.
Satchel played his first major league game at age 42 for the Cleveland Indians a couple of years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. He had been retired about 10 years when he got a call from Charlie O. Finley, the owner of the Kansas City A’s.
He signed Satchel to a one-day contract to pitch against the Boston Red Sox. In 1965, not many people came to watch the woeful A’s. Finley was trying to increase attendance. He even had Cool Papa Bell, another famous Negro Leagues player, sit in a rocking chair in the bullpen. He was served coffee by a nurse.
What looked like a publicity stunt turned into a triumphant final game for the great Satchel Paige. He pitched three scoreless innings, retiring the final six batters in a row. Only 9,000 fans attended.
When he left the mound, they dimmed the lights while the fans put their cigarette lighters to use. They serenaded Satchel to the dugout with the song, The Old Gray Mare. I wish I could have gone out like that, walking back to my dorm room after my Bike Bowl failure.
