by Coltrane
Jamie Moyer and the Phillies defeated the Yankees last night by a score of 6-3. The win makes Moyer the oldest pitcher to beat the Yankees, at 47 years and 112 days.
The day before that, my mom and I were talking about Stephen Strasburg. She made the statement that “pitchers don’t last as long.” I disagreed, citing guys like Nolan Ryan (for long careers) and Mark Fidrych (for short). I said that so long as Strasburg’s arm doesn’t blow up he could expect to have a longer career than most similarly talented hitters. I thought that it should be easier for an older pitcher to throw the ball than for an older batter to try to hit it.
Here’s the chart, longevity for players with careers starting after 1950:
| Seasons | Pitchers | Hitters | Total Players |
| 27 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 26 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 24 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| 23 | 3 | 8 | 11 |
| 22 | 8 | 13 | 21 |
| 21 | 9 | 12 | 21 |
| 20 | 4 | 15 | 19 |
| Total | 34 | 52 | 86 |
For players with 24 to 27 year careers the pitchers do indeed outnumber the hitters, 8 to 4.
For players with 20 to 23 year careers the hitters outnumber the pitchers, 48 to 26.
There have been more hitters than pitchers with 20+ year careers, a result that I hadn’t expected when I looked into this.
Chalk one up for mom.
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
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