The 100 Oldest Living Former Big Leaguers

Fred Caligiuri

Thanks to Baseball Almanac.com and this handy submission by our dear friend and timely contributor, Darrell Pittman, The Pecan Park Eagle is happy to provide you with this following chart of the 100 Oldest Living Former Big Leaguers. It was accurate to the day, August 22, 2018, when we received it. We do not know how often it is updated and, of course, we don’t know of any more recent departures over the past 24 hours. The shipping out rate comes often, in single and small group departures at this age, so you never know when the winds of change are going to blow. You just have to rest assured that they will.

Here’s how it looks as recently as yesterday:

Oldest Living Baseball PlayersThe 100 Oldest Living Baseball Players
Rank	Name	Age	Born on	First Game	Last Game
1	Fred Caligiuri	99 years, 304 days	10-22-1918	09-03-1941	09-20-1942
2	Tom Jordan	98 years, 351 days	09-05-1919	09-04-1944	04-28-1948
3	Bill Mills	98 years, 293 days	11-02-1919	05-19-1944	06-03-1944
4	Val Heim	97 years, 291 days	11-04-1920	08-31-1942	09-22-1942
5	Wally Westlake	97 years, 287 days	11-08-1920	04-15-1947	05-12-1956
6	Eddie Robinson	97 years, 250 days	12-15-1920	09-09-1942	09-15-1957
7	George Elder	97 years, 165 days	03-10-1921	07-22-1949	09-25-1949
8	Clint Conatser	97 years, 29 days	07-24-1921	04-21-1948	07-14-1949
9	Johnny Hetki	96 years, 102 days	05-12-1922	09-14-1945	09-22-1954
10	Gil Coan	96 years, 96 days	05-18-1922	04-27-1946	04-25-1956
11	Eddie Basinski	95 years, 291 days	11-04-1922	05-20-1944	07-04-1947
12	George Yankowski	95 years, 276 days	11-19-1922	08-17-1942	06-28-1949
13	Neal Watlington	95 years, 240 days	12-25-1922	07-10-1953	09-17-1953
14	Lee Howard	94 years, 284 days	11-11-1923	09-22-1946	09-25-1947
15	Tim Thompson	94 years, 174 days	03-01-1924	04-20-1954	04-27-1958
16	Chuck Harmon	94 years, 121 days	04-23-1924	04-17-1954	09-15-1957
17	Art Schallock	94 years, 119 days	04-25-1924	07-16-1951	09-23-1955
18	Ed Fitz Gerald	94 years, 93 days	05-21-1924	04-19-1948	09-15-1959
19	Milt Welch	94 years, 27 days	07-26-1924	06-05-1945	06-05-1945
20	Bill Greason	93 years, 353 days	09-03-1924	05-31-1954	06-20-1954
21	Charlie Silvera	93 years, 313 days	10-13-1924	09-29-1948	09-28-1957
22	Bobby Brown	93 years, 301 days	10-25-1924	09-22-1946	06-30-1954
23	Irv Noren	93 years, 266 days	11-29-1924	04-18-1950	10-01-1960
24	Fenton Mole	93 years, 69 days	06-14-1925	09-01-1949	09-30-1949
25	Wayne Terwilliger	93 years, 56 days	06-27-1925	08-06-1949	05-16-1960
26	Larry Miggins	93 years, 2 days	08-20-1925	10-03-1948	09-28-1952
27	Billy DeMars	92 years, 361 days	08-26-1925	05-18-1948	09-28-1951
28	Paul Hinrichs	92 years, 356 days	08-31-1925	05-16-1951	06-21-1951
29	Bobby Shantz	92 years, 330 days	09-26-1925	05-01-1949	09-29-1964
30	Chris Haughey	92 years, 323 days	10-03-1925	10-03-1943	10-03-1943
31	Tommy Giordano	92 years, 317 days	10-09-1925	09-11-1953	09-26-1953
32	Dick Manville	92 years, 240 days	12-25-1925	04-30-1950	09-10-1952
33	Hank Workman	92 years, 198 days	02-05-1926	09-04-1950	10-01-1950
34	Randy Jackson	92 years, 193 days	02-10-1926	05-02-1950	09-25-1959
35	Howie Judson	92 years, 187 days	02-16-1926	04-22-1948	09-25-1954
36	Jack Crimian	92 years, 186 days	02-17-1926	07-03-1951	05-06-1957
37	Dick Koecher	92 years, 145 days	03-30-1926	09-29-1946	10-02-1948
38	Alex Grammas	92 years, 141 days	04-03-1926	04-13-1954	09-29-1963
39	Bert Thiel	92 years, 110 days	05-04-1926	04-17-1952	04-30-1952
40	Dick Cole	92 years, 108 days	05-06-1926	04-27-1951	07-21-1957
41	Frank Saucier	92 years, 86 days	05-28-1926	07-21-1951	09-23-1951
42	Don Newcombe	92 years, 69 days	06-14-1926	05-20-1949	10-01-1960
43	Bob Miller	92 years, 67 days	06-16-1926	09-16-1949	08-10-1958
44	Bobby Morgan	92 years, 54 days	06-29-1926	04-18-1950	04-20-1958
45	Johnny Groth	92 years, 30 days	07-23-1926	09-05-1946	07-28-1960
46	Al Naples	91 years, 358 days	08-29-1926	06-25-1949	06-26-1949
47	Ed Mickelson	91 years, 347 days	09-09-1926	09-18-1950	05-12-1957
48	Dick Bokelmann	91 years, 300 days	10-26-1926	08-03-1951	05-03-1953
49	Carl Erskine	91 years, 252 days	12-13-1926	07-25-1948	06-14-1959
50	Jim Willis	91 years, 155 days	03-20-1927	04-22-1953	06-05-1954
51	Paul Stuffel	91 years, 153 days	03-22-1927	09-16-1950	05-24-1953
52	Don Hasenmayer	91 years, 140 days	04-04-1927	05-02-1945	09-29-1946
53	Charlie Maxwell	91 years, 136 days	04-08-1927	09-20-1950	04-26-1964
54	Dick Lane	91 years, 55 days	06-28-1927	06-20-1949	07-08-1949
55	Billy Gardner	91 years, 34 days	07-19-1927	04-22-1954	09-11-1963
56	Dick Smith	91 years, 32 days	07-21-1927	09-14-1951	05-01-1955
57	Rocky Krsnich	91 years, 17 days	08-05-1927	09-13-1949	09-26-1953
58	Cloyd Boyer	90 years, 355 days	09-01-1927	04-23-1949	09-24-1955
59	Dave Hillman	90 years, 342 days	09-14-1927	04-30-1955	06-20-1962
60	Duke Simpson	90 years, 341 days	09-15-1927	05-06-1953	09-17-1953
61	Tommy Lasorda	90 years, 334 days	09-22-1927	08-05-1954	07-08-1956
62	Bill Harrington	90 years, 323 days	10-03-1927	04-16-1953	09-30-1956
63	Bob Kelly	90 years, 322 days	10-04-1927	05-04-1951	06-04-1958
64	Jim Greengrass	90 years, 302 days	10-24-1927	09-09-1952	09-30-1956
65	Tommy Brown	90 years, 259 days	12-06-1927	08-03-1944	09-25-1953
66	Bob Oldis	90 years, 229 days	01-05-1928	04-28-1953	09-29-1963
67	Charlie Gorin	90 years, 197 days	02-06-1928	05-29-1954	04-17-1955
68	Felipe Montemayor	90 years, 196 days	02-07-1928	04-14-1953	06-12-1955
69	Roy Face	90 years, 183 days	02-20-1928	04-16-1953	08-15-1969
70	Paul Schramka	90 years, 153 days	03-22-1928	04-14-1953	04-16-1953
71	Billy Hunter	90 years, 79 days	06-04-1928	04-14-1953	09-27-1958
72	Nick Testa	90 years, 54 days	06-29-1928	04-23-1958	04-23-1958
73	John Glenn	90 years, 43 days	07-10-1928	06-16-1960	07-31-1960
74	Dick Hyde	90 years, 19 days	08-03-1928	04-23-1955	08-04-1961
75	Bob Stephenson	90 years, 11 days	08-11-1928	04-14-1955	09-18-1955
76	Jose Santiago	89 years, 352 days	09-04-1928	04-17-1954	07-15-1956
77	Vito Valentinetti	89 years, 340 days	09-16-1928	06-20-1954	05-11-1959
78	Hal Naragon	89 years, 325 days	10-01-1928	09-23-1951	08-05-1962
79	Fred Marolewski	89 years, 320 days	10-06-1928	09-19-1953	09-19-1953
80	Joe Presko	89 years, 319 days	10-07-1928	05-03-1951	05-07-1958
81	Gail Henley	89 years, 311 days	10-15-1928	04-13-1954	05-06-1954
82	Mickey Micelotta	89 years, 306 days	10-20-1928	04-20-1954	08-02-1955
83	Whitey Ford	89 years, 305 days	10-21-1928	07-01-1950	05-21-1967
84	Bob Ross	89 years, 293 days	11-02-1928	06-16-1950	05-08-1956
85	Bill Wilson	89 years, 289 days	11-06-1928	09-24-1950	09-13-1955
86	Don Mossi	89 years, 223 days	01-11-1929	04-17-1954	10-01-1965
87	Moe Savransky	89 years, 221 days	01-13-1929	04-23-1954	09-05-1954
88	Gale Wade	89 years, 214 days	01-20-1929	04-11-1955	05-08-1956
89	Bobby Kline	89 years, 207 days	01-27-1929	04-11-1955	09-25-1955
90	Al Worthington	89 years, 198 days	02-05-1929	07-06-1953	10-02-1969
91	Art Ditmar	89 years, 141 days	04-03-1929	04-19-1954	05-19-1962
92	Mel Held	89 years, 132 days	04-12-1929	04-27-1956	05-13-1956
93	Ed Winceniak	89 years, 128 days	04-16-1929	04-25-1956	05-12-1957
94	Curt Simmons	89 years, 95 days	05-19-1929	09-28-1947	10-01-1967
95	Hank Foiles	89 years, 73 days	06-10-1929	04-21-1953	05-02-1964
96	Frank Thomas	89 years, 72 days	06-11-1929	08-17-1951	05-30-1966
97	Don Ferrarese	89 years, 64 days	06-19-1929	04-11-1955	09-22-1962
98	Hector Lopez	89 years, 45 days	07-08-1929	05-12-1955	09-30-1966
99	Jerry Snyder	89 years, 32 days	07-21-1929	05-08-1952	05-10-1958
100	Ted Lepcio	89 years, 25 days	07-28-1929	04-15-1952	09-11-1961
Rank	Name	Age	Born on	First Game	Last Game
The 100 Oldest Living Baseball Players by Baseball Almanac

A Few Notes….

#1 Fred Caligiuri, a right hander, pitched only two seasons and 18 games in 1941-42, posting a career record of 2 wins and 5 losses and an ERA OF 4.52 for 79.2 innings of work. He is scheduled to turn 100 on his next birthday, October 22, 2018.

#29 Bobby Shantz, the first man to ever touch a baseball in the name of Houston MLB back in 1962, is both the oldest and only former Houston big leaguer on the list.

Local Houston Larry Dierker SABR Chapter member Larry Miggins is the 26th oldest surviving former big leaguer and the oldest of former Houston Buffs on this list who also made it to the big leagues for some time at the top. Five other former Buffs/MLB survivors include #36 Jack Crimian, #47 Ed Mickelson, #48 Dick Bokelmann, #58 Cloyd Boyer, and #80 Joe Presko.

Top North Texas veterans, #6 Eddie Robinson and #22 Bobby Brown are both on the list.

Have fun looking things over yourself. If I missed some former Buffs or Astros from glance review, please comment and point out the errors. I haven’t qualified for any gold gloves by inspection alone for quite some time, but that doesn’t keep me from an attraction to this kind of thing that still has all the power of that old “moth to the flame” pull.

*******************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags: The 100 Oldest Living Former Big Leaguers

This entry was posted on August 23, 2018 at 1:44 am and is filed under Baseball, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “The 100 Oldest Living Former Big Leaguers”

Fred Soland Says:
August 23, 2018 at 4:06 pm | Reply
It appears to me that Larry Miggins is just a kid!! 😉
Bill Hale Says:
September 6, 2018 at 5:02 pm | Reply
Bill, somehow I am no longer receiving you blog. Can you add my email to your blog?