Baseball may not be golf, but it certainly is not a young man's game either.

An MLB career can span across multiple decades, largely due to it being a less-taxing sport physically than football, basketball, etc. If a pitcher's arm is in good shape, or if a hitter still has enough strength to turn around on a fastball, then it's not unheard of for an MLB star to play into their early 40s.

The range from around ages 42-to-44 is usually the cutoff point when former stars call it a career. Very rarely though, a player will just keep the grind going. There's been a select number of MLB players to appear in a game past 45, which is the age that Royals starter Rich Hill will be when he starts for Kansas City on Tuesday, July 22 and becomes the oldest active player.

Here's a full breakdown of the oldest players to ever appear in an MLB game.

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Who was the oldest MLB player to play in a game?

The oldest player to ever appear in an MLB game is Satchel Paige, back in 1965 at the ripe age of 59 years and 80 days old.

Almost halfway to his 60th birthday, Paige pitched for the Kansas City A's against the Red Sox on Sept. 25, 1965. He even went three innings, giving up one hit and no runs.

Paige's career first began in 1926 in the Negro Leagues, and he eventually spent time pitching in the American League into his 40s. Before he even appeared in that final game in 1965, Paige wrote a book called "Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever."

If you're looking for the oldest player to appear in a MLB game this century, that would be Jamie Moyer, the pitcher who appeared in his final game on May 27, 2012, when he was 49 years and 191 days old.

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Oldest players in MLB history

A number of other players have also appeared in a game in their late-50s throughout the 20th century, including Charles O'Leary, Nick Altrock, Minnie Minoso and Jim O'Rourke.

Below is the list of players 47 and older to appear in an MLB game. Hill, who will be 45 years and 133 days old when he pitches on Tuesday, which would rank 36th on the all-time list of oldest players, younger than Ted Lyons but older than Pete Rose.

Player	Age	Year of final game	Position	Final team	Birth date
Satchel Paige	59 years, 80 days	1965	P	Kansas City A's	July 7, 1906
Charles O'Leary	58 years, 350 days	1934	INF	St. Louis Browns	Oct. 15, 1875
Nick Altrok	57 years, 16 days	1933	P	Washington Senators	Sept. 15, 1876
Minnie Minoso	56 years, 311 days	1980	LF, 3B	Chicago White Sox	Nov. 29, 1923
Jim O'Rourke	54 years, 21 days	1904	OF/C/1B	New York Giants	Sept. 1, 1850
String Bean Williams	51 or 52 years	1925	P	New York Lincoln Giants	1873
Jack Quinn	50 years, 6 days	1933	P	Cincinnati Reds	July 1, 1883
Hoyt Wilheim	49 years, 350 days	1972	P	Los Angeles Dodgers	July 26, 1922
Jimmy Austin	49 years, 302 days	1929	3B/SS	St. Louis Browns	Dec. 8, 1879
Arlie Latham	49 years, 199 days	1909	3B	New York Giants	Mar. 15, 1860
Jamie Moyer	49 years, 191 days	2012	P	Colorado Rockies	Nov. 18, 1962
Hughie Jennings	49 years, 153 days	1918	SS/1B	Detroit Tigers	Apr. 2, 1869
Julio Franco	49 years, 25 days	2007	SS/2B/1B	Atlanta Braves	Aug. 23, 1958
Gabby Street	48 years, 355 days	1931	C	St. Louis Cardinals	Sept. 30, 1882
Deacon McGuire	48 years, 182 days	1912	C/1B	Detroit Tigers	Nov. 18, 1863
Phil Niekro	48 years, 179 days	1987	P	Atlanta Braves	Apr. 1, 1939
Johnny Evers	48 years, 77 days	1929	2B	Boston Braves	July 21, 1881
Kaiser Wilheim	47 years, 207 days	1921	P	Philadelphia Phillies	Jan. 26, 1874

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Oldest players in MLB FAQs

Here's more about the oldest MLB players ever.

Who is the oldest player to win the World Series?

The oldest player to ever win a World Series was Jack Quinn, who won a championship with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1930, when he was 47 years old. 

Quinn pitched in Game 3 of the series against the Cardinals, going two innings while 47 years, three months and three days old. He's also the oldest player to appear in a World Series.

Who is the oldest player to play in an All-Star game?

Satchel Paige also holds the record for the oldest player to appear in MLB's All-Star Game, although it was over a decade before his final appearance as a pitcher. 

Paige pitched one inning in the 1953 All-Star Game when he was 47 years and seven days old. 

Pete Rose ranks second on the all-time list of oldest players in the Midsummer Classic; he was 44 years and 93 days old in the 1985 event.

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Who is the oldest player to hit a home run?

The oldest player to ever hit a home run in MLB (at least on record), is Julio Franco, who did so in April 2006 for the Mets. 

Franco was 47 years and 254 days old when he swatted a ball over the fences against the Padres, breaking the age record previously held by Jack Quinn for decades.

Who is the oldest player to record a strikeout?

Satchel Paige takes this title as well; he struck out just one batter in that 1965 appearance for the Kansas City A's, but that was enough to make him the oldest pitcher to record a strikeout. 

In other categories, Jamie Moyer is notable, including becoming the oldest pitcher to win a game in 2012 and becoming the oldest player to record an RBI.

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MLB age records by position

Here's a breakdown of some of the oldest MLB players by position.

Pitcher

Satchel Paige is the oldest pitcher in MLB history, appearing in a 1965 game and throwing three run-free innings with one strikeout. Nick Altrok is believed to be the second-oldest pitcher ever, appearing in a 1933 game at 57 years old.

Outfielder

The oldest player who played in the outfield to ever appear in a game is believed to be Minnie Minoso, who also played third base. He appeared in a 1980 game for the White Sox when he was 56 years old.

There are other outfielders who played into their 50s, but a more recent example of an aging outfielder was Ichiro Suzuki, who played his last game at 45 years and 150 days old.

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Infielder

The oldest infielder, and position player, to ever appear in an MLB game is Charles O'Leary. He played a few positions in the infield, but in 1934, appeared in a game at 58 years old.

Catcher

The oldest MLB player who played catcher to appear in a game is Jim O'Rourke, who appeared in a 1904 game at 54 years old.

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Notable MLB career comebacks 

While some MLB stars have made impressive returns to baseball after major injuries or other circumstances, some players have tried to defy Father Time by returning to the sport after a hiatus.

Julio Franco is one example. His first MLB season was in 1982, and he remained in the league until 1997, outside of a stint in Japan following MLB's 1994 strike.  However, Franco was back in Japanese leagues in 1998, got one at bat with the Devil Rays in 1999 and also played in the Mexican League that year. Between 2000 and 2001, he played in the Mexican League and for a South Korean team.

In 2001, the Braves gave Franco another shot, purchasing his contract from the Mexican League. He wound up remaining in the league for six more years, setting various age records, including becoming the oldest player to ever hit a home run.

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Outside of Paige, who didn't make his MLB debut until age 41 after years in the Negro Leagues, other notable pitchers to successfully attempt comebacks include Andy Pettitte and Scott Kazmir.

Pettitte initially retired in February 2011. But when he returned to Yankees spring training as an instructor in 2012, he got the itch to pitch again, then signed a minor league deal with New York. He wound up pitching two more seasons for the Yankees, solidifying his status as one of the best players in team history.

Kazmir also had some fascinating gaps in his career. He was a prized prospect and up-and-coming pitcher from 2004-11, mostly with the Rays, but injuries held him back. He returned to MLB after a year off in 2013 for Cleveland, remained in the league as an aging pitcher into 2016, then injuries once again halted his career. In 2021, Kazmir returned to the majors for a one-year stint with the Giants.

One of the strangest examples of a near-MLB comeback was from Jim Palmer, who in 1991, decided he wanted to try to make a comeback in the league at age 45 ... after he was already inducted as a Hall of Famer and was working as an Orioles broadcaster, seven years after his career ended.

However, Palmer's comeback attempt was brief, only appearing in one spring training game, and he went back to broadcasting.

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