Short story shorter: Julio Franco is still getting paid to play baseball, at the age of 56, signing with a semi-pro team out in Japan.
I love Julio Franco. Not just because he was on the Braves for a period of time in which I deemed him as a player of a cult-like status, but simply because he just kind of embodies what’s right and great about baseball in my opinion.
Julio’s basically a guy that’s been known to just love the game so much that pretty much nothing is going to stop him from playing, much less get paid to keep playing. It’s not that he even really needs the money or anything, as he’s also known to be a conservative, deeply religious individual, so really it boils down to the fact that he simply doesn’t want to stop playing. More power to him if there are teams out there that wish to pay him to do so.
He started playing in 1982, debuting a few months after I was born. Julio would basically go on to have a solid career’s worth of play between then and 1994, when Major League Baseball went on strike, but that didn’t stop him from playing; Julio simply went somewhere where he could keep playing baseball. He played a year in Japan, before coming back to the Majors in 1996, where he played a few more years for Cleveland and Milwaukee.
By now, he was 38, an age in which players are often considered old and going downhill, and this was no more prevalent than the fact that no MLB team picked him up going into the 1998 season. So instead of floundering, Julio did what he’s always done – gone somewhere where he was wanted. He went back to Japan in 1998 and put up another respectable season, and despite the fact that he got a single plate appearance for the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays in 1999, ultimately, he split time between the Mexican and Korean leagues.
Despite the fact that he was well into his 40s at this point, the Atlanta Braves saw value in a guy like Julio, as long as he was used in part-time capacity, and for the next few seasons, he flourished as a part-time player picking up a pinch-hit appearance almost daily, with the occasional start to rest a full-time starter. It was in this time that I moved to Atlanta and became a Braves fan, and I never tired of the endless amusement that the existence of Julio Franco provided for commentators and viewers alike, as people marveled over the fact that a man that was over 45 years old was still playing baseball at the highest level there was, and playing it well. By now, it was almost a daily occurrence of Julio Franco breaking a record for Oldest Player to do _____, with often times Julio himself breaking his own previous record, set by him, as recently as a day ago. I remember watching this particular moment, when Julio Franco became the oldest man to hit a grand slam, much less a pinch-hit slam or homer, or something else, which doesn’t matter because Julio Franco is pretty much the oldest man to have done just about everything in the Major Leagues.
I remember being a little sports sad when Julio Franco finally left the Braves in 2006, to go to the rival Mets, but even though he was flying a rival’s colors, I simply could not dislike him. Quietly, I still found amusement whenever Julio Franco kept breaking and stretching records that will probably never be broken in the modern game, as he did things like became the oldest player to hit a home run, steal a base, and pinch-run, among other little occurrences.
But then mid-way through 2007, the prodigal son returned, and Julio Franco came back to the Braves, after the Mets cut him, because they probably thought he was finally too old to be a positive contributor, at age 48. I remember being at Julio’s first game back on the Braves, as the Braves quickly started him at first base out of necessity, since they were stretched thin then. It was against the Cardinals, and I remember late in the game, Julio came up to the plate with runners on. The crowd was chanting “JU-LI-O” as they’d been doing all night long, and naturally, Julio delivered, getting a base-hit to bring the runners home. This made me very happy.
The magical comeback reunion came to an end when the Braves traded the farm away for Mark Teixeira, but to no surprise, undauntingly, Julio accepted his assignment to the minor leagues; at least there, he could continue playing on a regular basis. The Braves fell out of contention later on in the season, and Julio was brought back up to the Majors to end the season. The Mets cut him earlier in the year because they felt he was dwindling, but the reality is that in his reunion with the Braves, his overall numbers climbed back up.
And in his Julio’s last-ever appearance in the major leagues, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Julio delivered a pinch-hit single that brought a runner home.
The thing is, Julio Franco never really retired afterward. He went back to Mexico to play, and there was once a retirement announced for him, but it’s clear that it never really stuck. The guy clearly just wanted to keep playing baseball. South American leagues in general are kind of dicey, and there’s not always numbers to be had much less seen, but it’s hard to imagine that there was ever a time between 2009 and 2013 where Julio Franco wasn’t on a baseball field somewhere in the world.
This couldn’t have been more evident than the fact that in 2014, a 55-year old Julio Franco signed with the Fort Worth Cats, an independent team. And unlike most professional athletes that decide to finally ease off the pedal and let themselves go again, a fit, albeit slightly noticeably aged Julio Franco still got in uniform, grabbed a bat and played ball. His dedication to nutrition and fitness was well-known in the Major Leagues, but of course he didn’t deviate from any of it just because he wasn’t in the Major Leagues anymore.
And now, Julio Franco is back in Japan, playing-slash-managing for a semi-pro team. I’m willing to bet that there’s going to be slightly more playing than managing, especially with the language barrier, but who’s to say that after two prior tours in Japan, ol’ Julio isn’t capable of getting his way around now? Among his current teammates are a few Japanese washouts in MLB, and even a female, side-arm knuckleballer, but the fact of the matter is that none of it really does matter; someone is still willing to pay money to a 56-year old baseball player, who just loves the game.
I hope Julio Franco plays until he’s 100.
