Best-Ever 40 Year Old Pitchers
These MLB Baseball Starters All Had Great Years After Age 40
Jun 18, 2008
1. Warren Spahn, 1963 Milwaukee Braves (Age 42)
Warren Spahn was 42 years old during the 1963 season and finsihed the year with a 23-7 record and a 2.60 ERA. He threw 22 complete games and 7 shutouts. Spahn's '63 season also capped an amazing three-season run during which he won 62 games and posted an ERA that was 25 percent better than the league average in each of those three seasons.
2. Nolan Ryan, 1989 Texas Rangers (Age 42)
Nolan Ryan's was also 42 years old when he had a remarkable season in 1989 for the Texas Rangers, going 16-10 with a major league best 301 strikeouts. Ryan also pitched well at 43, 44, and 45, but physical problems forced him to work fewer and fewer innings each season (he did, however, manage to throw his sixth and seventh career no-hitters during that time, though).
3. Roger Clemens, 2004 Houston Astros (Age 40)
Because of the still unproven steroid allegations, some commentators and fans want to throw out every one of Roger Clemen's pitching accomplishments. However, until someone proves that Clemens took the sauce in 2004, and until someone proves that Clemens faced only steroid-free hitters during that season, his records and accomplishments from that year are legitimate. (This is still America, right?).
And what a year the Rocket had in 2004. He won 18 games, lost only four and posted an earned run average of just 2.98. Clemens took home his seventh Cy Young Award that fall. The scary thing is that Roger should have had a better record, but because the Astros provided him the lowest run support in the majors, he lost the chance to win at least six more games, and perhaps as many as eight. Clemens also got robbed in 2005, when he had a league-lowest ERA of 1.87, but ended up 13-8 because of paltry run support.
4. Satchel Paige, 1948 Cleveland Indians (Age 42)
Because he played almost the entirety of his career in the Negro Leagues, reliable statistics on Satchel Paige are hard to find. Sure, there are myths and legends about the man: like the time he struck out the entire National League and American League All-Star teams with a blindfold on and his ankles tied together. (Okay, I just made that one up.) But it is true that most of Paige's truly great accomplishments have been lost because of the racist attitudes that kept him out of America's game for two decades.
Nevertheless, Paige did finally get his shot in the majors in 1948. The Cleveland Indians signed Paige when he was 42 years old (and perhaps even older). He responded to this late opportunity by going 6-1 with a 2.48 ERA. After he helped the Indians clinch the pennant, Satch pitched in one game in the Tribe's victorious World Series, and posted an ERA of 0.00. Imagine what he could have done if the narrow-minded had allowed him to start pitching twenty years earlier?
5. Phil Neikro, 1984 New York Yankees (age 45)
Phil Neikro was the greatest knuckleball pitcher in the game's history. He won more games (318) struck out more batters (3,342) and pitched more innings (5,404) than any other pitcher who threw the knuckler exclusively. Because the pitch did not put a lot of stress on his elbow or his shoulder, Neikro was able to pitch effectively for much longer than just about any pitcher in the game's history. In 1984, at age 45, Neikro won 16 games, lost 8, had an ERA of just over 3.00 and surrendered just 15 home runs in well over 200 innings.
The 2008 Yankees could use a 45-year old hurler like Neikro right about now. It might do them some good.
