Moyer, 49, Makes Rockies – and History at BetLM

Moyer, 49, Makes Rockies — and History

SCOTTSDALE — Jamie Moyer showed up in spring train­ing con­vinced he could make the Col­orado Rock­ies rotation.

He spent the last six weeks prov­ing his point.

The Rock­ies announced Fri­day that the 49-year-old Moyer will make the team and will start the sec­ond game of the reg­u­lar sea­son, April 8, at Hous­ton. Moyer becomes the old­est start­ing pitcher to make an Open­ing Day roster.

The announce­ment came on the 20th anniver­sary of Moyer being released by the Chicago Cubs. That was the third year in a row he had been released, hav­ing been sent pack­ing the two pre­vi­ous years by St. Louis and Texas.

“A lot has hap­pened,” he said with a smile.

And now he has a chance to make even more happen.

“I look at this as an oppor­tu­nity, a great oppor­tu­nity to run with,” he said. “I don’t look at each start as my last start, but I have learned to appre­ci­ate things more. I’m not too sen­ti­men­tal, but I am aware.”

Hoyt Wil­helm was 49 when he opened the 1972 sea­son with the Los Ange­les Dodgers, but he pitched strictly in relief, appear­ing in 16 games and com­pil­ing a 2.84 ERA. Jack Quinn was used as a reliever at the age of 49 in 1932 and 50 in 1933.

Satchel Paige is the old­est pitcher to appear in a game, mak­ing a start and work­ing three shutout innings for the Kansas City Ath­let­ics at age 57 on Sept. 25, 1965. Paige had been out of base­ball, but was signed by A’s owner Char­lie Fin­ley so he could qual­ify for a pension.

Moyer will be 49 years, 4 months and 21 days old when he makes the start against Hous­ton. Quinn won three games in 1932, the last com­ing on Sept. 13, 1932 at the age of 49 years, 5 months, 26 days, which means Moyer could break that record with a win after May 4.

“I intend to win more than one game,” he said. “If age had a bear­ing on my deci­sion I wouldn’t be doing this.”

Moyer’s moti­va­tion extends past per­sonal accomplishments.

“This is an oppor­tu­nity that I have and now it’s up to me to run with it,” he said.

“I want to con­tribute here, that’s what it is all about. I want to con­tribute on the field and in the club­house. This is about pitch­ing for a team and putting forth the best effort I can along with 24 other play­ers to make the team successful.”

Rock­ies man­ager Jim Tracy said the deci­sion was made after see­ing how well Moyer responded the day after a 92-pitch, four-inning effort against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.

“I wanted to make sure phys­i­cally he is in the right place, and I am con­fi­dent he is,” said Tracy.

Moyer, who missed the 2011 sea­son recov­er­ing from Tommy John surgery, is 267–204 in his big-league career. He has won 233 games since turn­ing 30, sixth on the all-time list for a pitcher after his 30th birth­day, two behind Randy John­son. Cy Young is the all-time leader with 316 wins after 30.

Moyer’s 103 wins since turn­ing 40 are second-most in base­ball his­tory, 18 behind Phil Niekro.

Moyer has a chance to add a few more wins to his totals.

- Tracy Ringolsby

Our sports betting news features unique sports betting articles as well as current sports news compiled from leading wire services. This arti­cle was dis­trib­uted by Syn­di­cated Sports news wire and aggre­ga­tion ser­vice, For more MLB base­ball news see: Moyer, 49, makes Rock­ies – and his­tory.

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