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MLB s milestone players: 1,000th-9,000th By JohnW53 on Apr 16, 2021, 7:51am CDT +
20,000th player.
There had been 19,902 through the end of 2020, starting with the 18 who played in the first game in the history of the National Association, on May 4, 1871. The Fort Wayne Kekiongas defeated the Cleveland Forest Citys, 2-0.
(The White Stockings, ancestors of today s Cubs, made their debut 4 days later, beating Cleveland, 14-12.)
Nine new players joined the list on Opening Day of 2021. Through April 14, there had been 40 newcomers, pushing the all-time total to
19,942.
133 new players per season, but the number has been much higher in recent years.
The 5 seasons in the entire Modern Era with the most new players all have come in 2015-19: 255, then 257, 262, 247 and 261.
Cubs oldest position players, pitchers By JohnW53 on Apr 12, 2021, 6:22am CDT +
Who was the oldest in the Modern Era?
Who was their oldest pitcher?
Who was their oldest pitcher in his final season?
Each of those questions has a different answer.
....
Nearly 125 years after his final game,
Cap Anson remains the oldest player in franchise history to appear anywhere other than on the mound.
The last game of his remarkable, 27-season career No. 2,524 overall and No. 2,277 for Chicago came on Oct. 3, 1897. That day, Anson was
45 years, 169 days old.
He had been 19 days past his 19th birthday when he played his first game, for the Rockford Forest Citys, on May 6, 1871.
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CLEVELAND For the first time since he joined the Hall of Fame ballot in 2018, former Indians shortstop Omar Vizquel did not see a jump in his vote total.
Vizquel received 197 of 401 votes cast (49.1 percent) by tenured members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, as announced Tuesday on MLB Network. In 2018, he earned 37 percent of the vote before jumping to 42.8 percent in ’19. When he received 52.6 percent of the vote in ‘20, it appeared as though he was on a steady climb to reach the 75 percent threshold within the next few years before this slight setback. Vizquel now has six more years to attempt to reach that mark.
January 17, 2021
Chris Perez didn’t get many opportunities to swing the bat during his seven big-league seasons. As a short reliever who played primarily in the American League, that was to be expected. Somewhat less expected was what happened when he did have a chance to dig into the batters box.
“I had two [plate appearances], and I’m bitter about one of them,” Perez told me recently. “In 2008, my rookie year with St. Louis, we were in Florida at the old stadium, playing the Marlins. I came into the game in the eighth inning with one out, and got a double play with the bases loaded. When I went back to the dugout, Tony La Russa told me, ‘Hey, Chris, you’re still in there. Stay focused, because you’ve got the ninth.’”