Julio Franco: On His Way To Being A 50 Year-Old Big Leaguer

Franco: baseball's Energizer Bunny


God bless Julio Franco.

God bless a guy his age (47) who can not only still play professional baseball, but can do it at the highest level. God bless a guy who can, approaching 50, not only play at the major league level, but play it in such a way that he commands a new two-year, $2.2 million contract. Actually, God has blessed Julio Franco, because he can do all of these things, and has.

Franco signed with the Mets the other day, and this is also significant because he has spent the last several seasons in the bigs in the National League, where he cannot take advantage of the designated hitter rule and be half a player. Julio Franco plays first base, plays it well enough that he isn’t considered a liability. But it is his bat, let’s face it, that is keeping him in The Show. Julio Franco can still swing it, to the tune of a .299 career average, which included a strong .275 in 2005 with the Braves. He had nine homers in just 233 at-bats.

Now he will ply his trade with the Mets, who thought enough of his skills to give him a contract that will run past his 49th birthday.

I don’t have to tell you how remarkable that is. I don’t have to sit here and do the hackneyed thing of mentioning what was going on in the world when Franco debuted in the majors (1982). I don’t have to make cutesy comments about what most men Julio Franco’s age are doing right about now, and how they are nowhere NEAR playing even stick ball, let alone major league baseball. After all, you should know that what we are seeing with Julio Franco is nothing short of a freak of nature and an example of the triumph of the human spirit, of mind over aging matter.

He is a 47 year-old man paying a game built for boys half his age.

It is so refreshing and cool to see a guy like Franco not only play the game at his age, but to play it with such commitment and enjoyment. He has stated in interviews that he fully intends on playing past his 50th birthday. Beyond that, who knows? Beyond that, who cares? He already deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame. Julio Franco has over 2,500 hits. Sure they’ve been spread out over 22 seasons, but how many players even stick around for 22 seasons? Do you know that as recently as 2004, as a 46 year-old, Julio Franco was a .300 hitter? He rode in at .309. But this wasn’t some token .300; Franco had over 300 at-bats that season. In fact, Franco has only hit lower than .275 once in the past 12 seasons. He’s not just some old guy taking a roster space from someone else.

So Julio Franco signs with the New York Mets, for two years and $2.2 million. He will play first base for them and pinch hit, but he won’t be a sideshow. He will be a real contributor. Why would you think anything else, after 23 years?