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1957 Players Still With us

Mike McCormick

Not trying to be morbid here, but Mike McCormick died last week and it got me thinking about baseball players from 1957 that are still alive today. McCormick was signed as a bonus baby by the New York Giants towards the end of  1956 and made his major league debut (as a 17-year-old) on 09/03/1956. According to the Bonus Baby rules of the day McCormick was required to stay on the major league roster for his first two seasons, so he was able to make a few more appearances again in 1957.

It wasn't until next year, once the Giants had left New York for San Francisco, that this California kid was able to begin to flourish. He made a pair of All-Star appearances for San Francisco in the early 1960s, then his arm fell off, he drifted around the league for a couple of years, and then his arm returned and he was able to win a Cy Young while back with San Francisco in 1967. McCormick's final season was 1971 after which he retired (as a 32-year-old).

Eddie Robinson
Of the players from my recently completed 1949 replay, there are 12 that are still alive, eight of which appeared in both 1949 and 1957. Eddie Robinson, the current oldest living baseball player, is one of the eight who played in both seasons. Wayne Terwilliger made his major league debut in 1949 and played until 1960 but did not appear in 1957, so I am kinda sorta including him on this count as well.

Of the one-hundred oldest living baseball players, counting the eight that played in both 1949 and 1957, there are 49 players from 1957 included on that list. There are two Hall-of-Famer's - Whitey Ford and Willie Mays among that group.

Billy Cox (L) and Eddie Basinski (R), 1947
Just for the sake of completeness, there are two players on that oldest living players list that completed their major league careers before 1949 - Eddie Basinski and Chris Haughey.

Caveat - my eyes aren’t what they used to be so if I miscounted or missed someone along the way I am apologizing in advance. And again, I am not trying to be morbid here, I was just curious and this is what my research turned up.

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