Down 2-1 in the top of the ninth inning on Wednesday afternoon, Paul Konerko took a walk. He represented the go-ahead run for the Chicago White Sox, so manager Ozzie Guillen sent in a pinch-runner, the 44-year-old Omar Vizquel.
Omar Vizquel: The Oldest Pinch-Runner Ever?
Vizquel is apparently ageless -- freakishly so. In his attic, there’s a portrait of him fielding, and it looks more like Derek Jeter with each passing day. But even if Vizquel is in fantastic shape, it's a little bizarre for someone that, uh, preserved to serve as a pinch-runner.
So who are the five oldest pinch-runners? To the Play Index -- the greatest internet innovation since HotBot!
5. Rickey Henderson
This is who most of us probably thought would top the list, and he did pinch-run 16 times as a 43-year-old for the Boston Red Sox in 2002, but there were older. He played another season, for the Dodgers, but he didn’t get in the game as a pinch-runner. That’s like buying an unrestored Triumph TR4 and using it to store your recyclables.
4. Jimmy Austin
According to Baseball Reference’s Fan EloRater, Jimmy Austin ranks between Milt May and Curt Blefary among all-time hitters. That’s the kind of poetry that baseball will throw in your face when you least expect it.
Austin was 43 when he pinch-ran in this game in 1923 for the St. Louis Browns. It was his only appearance of the year. He would skip 1924 before playing in a single game in both 1925 and 1926. In 1929, in the last game of the season, Austin got a pinch-hit appearance at the age of 49. He struck out. That was because he was old.
Austin’s other claim to fame:
As he noted in the greatest baseball book ever, he was the other guy in that picture.
3. Omar Vizquel
He comes up as #3 on the all-time list, yet another footnote to a fun career. He’s on pace for 60 hits this year, which would put him on pace to break the all-time hits record in 23 years, when he’s 67. I wouldn’t bet against him, though the guy with the record might.
Also, if Paul Konerko’s teammates aren’t still heckling him in the clubhouse, this great game called baseball is in serious trouble.
2. Carlton Fisk
If I were a manager, and I really, really hated a player, I think my favorite thing to do would be to send in a 45-year-old man with catcher’s knees to pinch-run for him. That’s not what happened -- both times Fisk pinch-ran, he went in for starting catcher Ron Karkovice, who was hurt and unable to continue. (The starting shortstop for those games: Ozzie Guillen.) But it would be funny to say, “Victorino! Sit down, Fisk is going in,” just to annoy players and fans.
1. Julio Franco
He was 46 when he entered this game after Carlos Delgado was hit by a Tim Hudson pitch. Just to prove a point, Franco then stole second base, as if to say, "Look at me, I’m a pinch-runner! Wheeeeee!"
Aw, heck, that’s worth a .gif:
What the back stories for the top two mean, though, is that Omar Vizquel was the oldest player in history to be put into a game as a pinch-runner for strategic purposes. There’s going to be a lively debate on his Hall of Fame credentials when he retires, but one thing is for sure: the guy has had a pretty interesting career.
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