The Pecan Park Eagle

Jim Pendleton, Outfielder
1962 Houston Colt .45s
Born: January 7, 1924
Oldest Historical Birthdate in Franchise Annals

The oldest player by birth date in the history of Houston MLB experience is outfielder Jim Pendleton (DOB: 1924-01-07) of the 1962 Colt .45s.

The youngest player by birth date in the history of Houston MLB roster experience, so far, is shortstop Carlos Correa (DOB: 1994-09-22) of the 2015 Astros.

The Pendleton-Correa age gap from oldest to youngest born is now 70 years, 8 months, and 2 days.

The first season in which the Houston Astros had not even a single roster player who was older than me (DOB: 1937-12-31) was 1973. It didn’t happen in 1972 because of the presence that year of pitcher Fred Gladding (DOB: 1936-06-28).

(Question: If you think you are now old enough to ask when you also crossed the Rubicon from youth to not-so-much, go to the team roster section by season in Baseball Almanac and find out the first year in which the Astros fielded a team in which all the players on the roster were younger than you.)

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/astr.shtml

Of the 43 players on the roster of the 1962 MLB expansion club, the Houston Colt .45s, 30 were born n the 1930s, 11 were born in the 1920s, and 2 were born in the 1940s.

Of the 25 players on the current active playing roster of the 2015 Houston Astros (as shown at Astros.Com), 20 were born in the 1980s and 5 were born in the 1990s.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/roster

Have fun with the math! – That is, unless you are still young enough to find something more entertaining to do on a warm autumn night that feels more like summer in a “been there/done that” Houston world to me. If that’s the case, with you, then please, by all sane or insane means, go do your thing right now – while you still have the juices flowing and the illusions rolling.

Life’s a play – and none of us need to miss out on any of the acts that are written into our particular life scripts as steps to growth, humility, and peaceful spiritual contentment with a simpler occupation of time.

The game is the thing. – Sunday, our Astros have a chance to put the Royals in a barrel and roll them down the hill to the start of their off-season by late afternoon on Monday.

When it happens, or whenever it happens, I’ll be thinking also about Jim Pendleton, the oldest player by historical birth date in Houston franchise annals – and of that seventy year arch in time that joins him to Carlos Correa, our youngest Astro to date and newest star.

And in between came all of the other franchise players who have contributed in their own large and small ways to this moment in our club’s new rising, roaring happy time.

And that’s what I get to keep from tonight’s solitary search.

GO ASTROS!

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