AH Challenge - American team sports star active at 84

Checking wikipedia for a query I'd had about World Series highlights on the ref. desk, I stumbled across Harry Payne in the "did you knwo" part of the front page. A Welsh rugby player, he played in veteran matches till he broke an ankle at age 84. Payne is mentioned as having appeared at age 82; i didn't get the reference but I'll presume it was an important match.

Your challenge - have an Amiercan team sports figure (no fair individual - Sam Snead was close to that when he won his last tournament) active at age 84. The requirements:

1. Must be baseball, football, basketball, hockey, or soccer; I'll give you the last if there's a *really* good one who might be able to play in the NASL or current soccer league.

2. He can retire long enough to enter a Hall of Fame and come back, but doesn't have to be a HOFer.

3. Doesn't have to be a regular past age 40, but has to have been on different rosters (minors, CBA count) in 90% of years past age 50 for the full season. (Player-manager counts) He must have gotten into at least...oh, 1/10th of his team's games. (That's 2 for football; decided to change it from 3. 8 in basketball and hockey, 15-16 in baseball.)

4. Must have played on at least one championship team in the top level of that sport in his 80s.

5. You can't just give a guy the fountain of youth. However, you can: a. use a POD of no serious injury at a young age that helps them play longer; and, b. Keep a person from dying younger. So, for instance, if Satchel Paige does well enough they offer him a contract after his 3 scoreles innings in 1965, and you want him to pitch till the year 1990, that's fine; something can happen so he just gets seriously ill instead of dying in 1981.

George Blanda and one NHL player...Gordy Howe?...are also good possibilities. Have fun.
 
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Here's mine:

Bill Veeck buys a minor league team after the Miami Marlins in the middle 1950s, before buying the White Sox. Paige goes with him and keeps playing. His contract is purchased by a minor league affiliate of the White Sox in 1959 when Veeck buys the team. Arm injuries derail two of their best bullpen pitchers in the last days of the season; Paige is called upon because he's the most reliable and can get there fastest. He ends up getting into a World Series game when it goes 14 innings, but the White Sox lose in 5. He stays on as a back of the bullpen guy till Veccky sells the team.

By then, Charlie Finley is with the Athletics as the owner, and after a couple minor league years, Paige is called up and pitches 3 scoreles sinnings in 1965 at age 59 (as in OTL.) He's in good enough shape Finley keeps him on the roster when a plane crash (they weren't uncommon in those days) hurts several members of the '65 A's, though none who will play a big role by the early '70s.

Paige stays with the club through '67, then is miffed when the team moves to Oakland. He tries out for a few teams in 1968, then the expansion Seattle Pilots, who are doing very poorly, ask him to come pitch for them as a promotion. He does poorly in two starts, and it doesn't help the team to keep from moving, but he does get a minor league contract for 1970.

Paige spends most of his team till the 1977 season shuffling around on Latin American teams, as a player-coach, making the Hall of Fame through the Negro League committee. Then, Bill Veeck calls on him again in 1976, figuring Paige is in better shape than Mnnie Minoso. Veeck had just bought the White Sox again. He pitches in the majors and minor league system - mostly the minors - for them through 1980, when Veecky sells the team.

it seems his decades-long career will be over, especially when he gets seriously ill in 1980 and spends several weeks in the hospital after the season. However, his being close to major league training staff saves him, and he is again called upon, after the disastrous 1981 season; this time by an unexpected source.

Calvin Griffith had one of the worst teams in baseball in '81, and was losing fans. he'd alienated lots of black fans with some comments that caused Rod Carew to say he'd never play for him again. A few years later, he was still trying to make amends. He tried to show how much he cared by inviting Paige to spring training in 1981. Paige needed some time to get his arm back in chape, but he'd been doing that for over half a year, so while he was in the low minors for a couple months, Griffith brought him up to pitchin early June, naming him as bullpen coach, and even giving him a rocking chair like Finley had done 17 years earlier.

Paige becomes a 'good luck charm" for the Twins, and is partly credited with keeping them in Minnesota when a move was threatened if attendance didn't increase. Of course, he was in the minors through 1984, when the Twins were contending, and pitched in about a tenth of his team's games down there, but was still called up in September to encourage the club's youngsters. He did pitch in one game in the majors in 1986, when the Twins were really bad, but in 1987, he again was in the minors almost till the end of the deadline for playoff rosters to be set.

Then, one of their bullpen pitchers had a ball lined off of him. Paige was placed on the active roster, since he was already a coach up there with them, and he wound up pitching to one batter in the 1987 World Series. It was an intentional walk, but he still appeared.

He was in the minors again in 1988 and 1989, but the Twins weren't very good again in 1990, so he was called up again, only to break his leg late in the year. he retired immediately afterward, and died a few months later.

Phew...it was actually tougher with a pitcher than anything. I better make it 5% of a team's games as a pitcher...and he only has to be on the roster of a championship team.
 
To compete in a team sport beyond about age 40 requires some finesse skills to make up for the loss of strength and speed. A couple of lines come up:

A basketball center such as Kareem Jabbar or Robert Parrish might play beyond age 50 as a spot player - maybe a big guy with a good three put in just because it't tough to block his shot. Hate to see someone that age banging in the lane.

Good example with the relief pitcher - maybe somebody with a junkball pitch (don't know enough about Paige) who doesn't need a fastball.

George Blanda (as a placekicker - not as a QB) comes to mind as a football player - although I doubt he can kick for range past age 60. Maybe if the league allows some extra roster spots for a second kicker (long FGs and kickoffs) and the old kicker is kept on because he maintains incredible accuracy on PATs.
 
64 I figure I could do. 84? Probably not.

My 64 is Mario Andretti.

Mario Andretti, after a very successful career spanning four decades, retired from full-time competition in 1994 at the age of 54. But Mario's career was in fact not over.

At Indianapolis in 1995, Mario's son Michael made the field for the Indy 500, only to have a horrific crash put him in the hospital on the final practice day. With just three days to the race, Mario stepped up and jumped into Michael's #6 Newman Haas Racing Lola-Cosworth. Mario finished an impressive fourth, his best result at Indianapolis since losing to Danny Sullivan's spin and win in 1985, and drove for another five races for NHR will Michael got healthy.

The 1996 Indy 500, marred by a divisive off-season and a bitter battle between sanctioning body CART and Indianapolis owner Tony George, needed good press badly. And so again, Mario stepped into the cockpit for Newman-Haas, this time teamed with Michael and Brazilian Christian Fittipaldi. Mario was well known for his talent of course, but nobody expected qualifying, where Mario shared the front row with Alex Zanardi and hometown hero Tony Stewart. Mario jumped past Stewart on the start, and led 138 of the 200 laps to claim the 1996 Indy 500, becoming at 56 the older winner in Indianapolis history.

Mario's performance and his friendship with Paul Newman made him abandon his retirement. Mario drove the remainder of the 1996 season with NHR deciding whether to keep going in 1997, which he did. Mario won again in 1996, leading eventual Indycar champion Jimmy Vasser home in the season finale at Laguna Seca, where he had "retired" two years before.

Mario's age had slowed his reactions somewhat he felt, but natural talent and experience meant that he was very much on the pace. 1997 would be one of the most epic seasons in Indycar history, as Zanardi and Vasser's Target Chip Ganassi Racing juggernaut was fought hard by Walker Racing's Robby Gordon and Gil de Ferran, and rising stars Tony Stewart for Team Menard and Greg Moore for Forsythe Championship Racing. Newman-Haas went with the new Swift chassis for 1997, which Michael and Mario loved by Fittipaldi hated. Michael was victorious at Homestead, but his problems from his 1995 injury were haunting him, and by a handful of races in Mario was the king at NHR.

Moore, Stewart and Vasser's consistent performances and Zanardi's cement block lead foot and determination left the rest of the pack behind. Mario, Al Unser Jr, Bobby Rahal and Paul Tracy however focused on oval dominance. Mario was unable to repeat as Indy 500 winner and Zanardi went on to win it, but Mario got his revenge in the United States 500 at Michigan two months later when Zanardi broke while in the lead and Mario outdueled Moore, Tracy and Little Al to go away with his third win since his return. Las Vegas saw Zanardi and Mario face off, and Mario came out on top despite Zanardi's determined efforts and Stewart's ruthlessness in traffic.

Mario stunned all by signing in November 1997 for a three-year term with Newman-Haas. Entering 1998, NHR and its 58 year old team leader was no longer a gimmick. Mario still had it.

Mario stayed at NHLR until 2000, when he retired to sportscars, noting that Zanardi, Moore, Stewart (now driving for Penske) and the other young guns simply had him outmatched. That didn't stop him from claiming his 76th and last win on his 500th start, the 2000 Grand Prix of Atlanta at Road Atlanta. Mario left Indycars for good in 2000 at Age 60, with 504 starts, 76 wins, 4 championships and 2 Indy 500s.

Mario wasn't done yet though. Moving to sportscar racing, Mario was drafted for the 12 Hours of Sebring for the Panoz Motorsports Team. Panoz's 2001 LMP07 roadster was a dog at Sebring, but the revised LMP01 Evo version that debuted at Le Mans, powered by a new Ford-Cosworth engine, was not as good a handler as the leading Audi, Dome and Chrysler entries, but it was a rocket in a straight line and Mario, with teammates David Brabham and Jan Magnussen, proved its worth. The factory Audis ran like clockwork, but the private cars weren't so lucky and bad luck plauged both Chrysler and Dome. Mario brought the car across the line in third, the best result for an American car since the Ford GT40's last win at Le Mans in 1969. Panoz's results kicked Ford into providing funding to the squad, especially as General Motors' Cadillac squad got better as the year went on as well.

In 2002, the factory Audis were there again with direct-injection engines, but the Americans had both come with competitive entries. The Panoz LM10 ran with a 4.4L V10 based on the Cosworth F1 engine, where the Cadillac arrived with a twin-turbo version of its Northstar V8. The Audis led off, but suspension failure caused Allan McNish to crash early, and a lapmarker punted off Frank Biela, ending Audi's chances.

The Cadillacs had the edge from then on, until three hours to go. Mario jumped behind the wheel with a lap to make up, and went for it. 62 years of age meant nothing, as he clawed back every inch of the gap to the lead Cadillac driven by South African Wayne Taylor. Mario got back on the lead lap with 90 minutes to go. Sensing a problem, Taylor handed the car to Greg Moore, Mario's old sparring partner. Mario closed the gap, and with ten minutes left Mario powered past Moore on the Mulsanne. Moore tried several times to pass back, but Mario crossed the line first with Moore tucked up behind him. It was the closest finish in Le Mans history, and Moore conceded after the race "He beat me. He just did. I was giving it everything I had and the car had. But if you are going to lose at Le Mans, let it be to a legend."
 
Great job; I'd forgotten about auto racing, since I don't follow it; but, you wrote it in an exciting way that made it interesting for me. And, that's part of the fun of TLs.
 
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