Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers by Chuck Rosciam

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The most demanding and dangerous position on a baseball field is the one designated as "Number 2" on your scorecard - the Catcher. He's involved in every pitch and touches the ball more than anyone else does and he's supposed to be in charge of the infield. But, he pays a price: players keep crashing into him and hitting him with pitches and bats, and he has to spend all night in a crouch. His career is usually limited to less than 1,500 games behind the plate - but he won't get that far if he can't ignore the pain and contribute to the offense.

This web site is in honor of those masked men who've worn the Tools of Ignorance. Without their daring, intellect, skills, and devotion to the game, baseball would never be what it is today nor would it have survived the past one hundred and forty years.

Catch These Catcher Trivia

With several aging backstops on the Free Agent market (ie. Ivan Rodriguez, Brad Ausmus, Gregg Zaun, Jason Varitek among others) just how long can these guys continue to catch?

Gabby Street (technically) holds the record for the Oldest Catcher having squatted at age 48 years, 11 months and 20 days. However, his last year as a catcher (1 game) was as a player-manager for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1931. His true last year catching was in 1912 at the age of 30. Deacon McGuire is the True Oldest Active Catcher having caught his last game (#1781) at age 48 years, 6 months and 0 days. He caught for 26 seasons over 29 years (1884-1912).

Ten Oldest Catchers

Catcher	Born	Last Game	YY-MM-DD
Deacon McGuire Grover Hartley Carlton Fisk Jack Ryan Merv Shea Clyde Sukeforth Rick Dempsey Johnny Riddle Bob Boone Chief Zimmer	11/18/1863 7/2/1888 12/26/1947 11/12/1868 9/5/1900 11/30/1901 9/13/1949 10/3/1905 11/19/1947 11/23/1860	5/18/1912 9/30/1934 6/22/1993 10/4/1913 8/19/1944 6/7/1945 9/27/1992 9/11/1948 9/27/1990 9/27/1903	48-06-00 46-02-28 45-05-26 44-10-22 43-11-14 43-06-07 43-00-14 42-11-08 42-10-08 42-10-04

Catching in the big leagues can be grueling for an old guy. In this era, we see more pitches. More pitching changes. More time taken between pitches. More opposing hitters to study. It's not a get-in, get-out business.

When a team relies on a catcher in his mid- to late-30s to carry the load in a 162-game schedule, along with six weeks of warming up dozens of arms in spring training, and maybe the playoffs, that's some high-level squatting.

Imagine how many times in his big-league career Ivan Rodriguez, who turned 38 in November, has bent down, stuck out his mitt and stopped a pitch from knocking him out. A conservative estimate, including spring training, postseason, pregame and between innings: 45,000 squats a year over 19 years, a total of about 800,000, excluding his stints in winter league.

The following table lists the 20 Oldest Active Catchers and their ages at year's end. These all are well-known catchers beyond their primes, some relegated to backup roles. There's only so much squatting a guy can do and it is doubtful that any on this list will find themselves on the above Ten Oldest Catchers list.

Catcher	Born	YY-MM-DD
Brad Ausmus	4/14/1969	40-08-17
Gregg Zaun	4/14/1971	38-08-17
Mike Redmond	5/5/1971	38-07-26
Jorge Posada	8/17/1971	38-04-14
Henry Blanco	8/29/1971	38-04-02
Jamie Burke	9/24/1971	38-03-07
Ivan Rodriguez	11/27/1971	38-01-04
Adam Melhuse	3/27/1972	37-09-04
Jason Varitek	4/11/1972	37-08-20
Paul Bako	6/20/1972	37-06-11
Chris Coste	2/4/1973	36-10-27
Jason Larue	3/19/1974	35-09-12
Jason Kendall	6/26/1974	34-06-05
Ben Molina	7/20/1974	35-05-11
Chad Moeller	2/18/1975	34-10-13
Jose Molina	6/3/1975	34-06-28
Rod Barajas	9/5/1975	34-03-26
Javier Valentin	9/19/1975	34-03-12
Ramon Castro	3/1/1976	33-09-30
Matt Treanor	2/3/1976	33-09-28