Signed Baseball Cards - Oldest MLB Players Alive

[Rikki Gins]

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Here is an updated version of a Bill Greason signed baseball card, made up of an artist designed card and a separate, but authentic autograph, penned by Bill himself. Bill is the oldest, ex-Major League Baseball player in existence. He is currently 101 years, 5 months, and 23 days old at the time of this posting.

As Wikipedia tells us, Bill played for the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro leagues from 1948 to 1951 and for the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League in 1954. He currently lives in a nice looking, suburban house in Birmingham, Alabama.

Here is an interesting, one year old article about Bill & his Marine Corps. experiences: https://news.va.gov/138253/honoring-veterans-marine-corps-bill-greason/

William Henry Greason at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Greason

[Rikki Gins]

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Here is yet another customized baseball card that has been signed by our fifteenth oldest ex-Major League Baseball player John Pyecha. John was a right-handed pitcher who played six seasons (1950–1955) of minor league baseball.  He was picked up by the Chicago Cubs back in 1954. We would think that a long, Major League pitching career would ensue, but sadly, we would be wrong. John only pitched one game. As Wikipedia relates:

On April 24, 1954, at Crosley Field, Pyecha entered the game in relief of Warren Hacker in the seventh inning with his Cubs trailing the Cincinnati Redlegs 3–2. Pyecha held the Redlegs off the scoreboard in the seventh and eighth innings; meanwhile, Chicago rallied to take a 5–3 lead thanks to home runs by Ralph Kiner and Hank Sauer. Pyecha started the last half of the ninth inning by issuing a walk to Gus Bell, then retired Jim Greengrass and Ted Kluszewski to get within one out of the victory. But Johnny Temple singled to bring the winning run to the plate, and Wally Post hit a three-run walk-off home run to win the game for the Redlegs. In his lone MLB game, Pyecha allowed three runs, all earned, on four hits and two bases on balls, with two strikeouts, in 2+2⁄3 innings pitched.

The powers that be must have decided that John was better suited for minor league play. He retired in 1955 after pitching 154 minor league games.

Just one game, yet more than enough to find a room in this home for aging ex-Major League ballplayers. John is currently 94 years, 3 months, and 3 days old. He is a mere three days younger than Neal Hertweck, who currently occupies the number 14 position.

[Rikki Gins]

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Meet ex-Major League Baseball outfielder Don Taussig, who currently occupies position 16 on the oldest living players list.  According to Wikipedia, Don...

Played all or part of three seasons in Major League Baseball for the 1958 San Francisco Giants, 1961 St. Louis Cardinals, and 1962 Houston Colt 45s. He threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet tall and weighed 180 pounds.

Like all of the other players here, Don had extensive playtime in the minor leagues. His last game was in 1964.

Don is 94 years and 16 days old at the time of this posting. He is 2 months and 26 days younger than number fifteen, John Pyecha.

Don currently lives in Loveland, Colorado.

Donald Franklin Taussig at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Taussig

Don hit four homeruns during his MLB appearances. Here is one of them:

[Rikki Gins]

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Say hello to Lee Tate who was a shortstop in the minor leagues from 1951 to 1965. That's fourteen years, for those of you who aren't mathematically inclined. Those years add up to over 1,600 games that Lee played in the minor leagues alone. Impressive, but that wouldn't be enough for him to gain entrance into this exclusive thread, unless he played in Major League Baseball. And play in it he did. Lee, or Skeeter as his co-players called him, played part time with the 1958-59 St. Louis Cardinals.

Part time perhaps, but that was enough to get the club to have some Lee Tate baseball cards printed up. There is a signature on the card but it isn't a personal one. It's a reproduced one. As you can see, I did purchase a nice autographed card with a best wishes note to a fan named Kevin. Better than nothing.

Mr. Tate was born on March 18, 1932. Oh, wait a sec. Looks like we will be wishing Skeeter a happy birthday in another four days. Currently, he is 93 years, 11 months, and 25 days old, thus he holds the number seventeen spot on the list of oldest living ex-players in Major League Baseball. He is only 29 days younger then Don Taussig, who occupies the number sixteen spot.

Lee lives in a nice white house with a big front yard, in Omaha, Nebraska.

Lee Tate at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Tate

[Rikki Gins]

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Happy Birthday wishes go out to our number 6 man, Vern Law. He turned 96 just two days ago. Happy Birthday, Vernon!

[Bart Ell]

Say hello to Lee Tate who was a shortstop in the minor leagues from 1951 to 1965. That's fourteen years, for those of you who aren't mathematically inclined.

I think it is 15 years.

[Rikki Gins]

I think it is 15 years.

The shortstop had a 15-year (1951–1965) career in minor league baseball, appearing briefly in the Major Leagues for parts of the 1958 and 1959 seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Right you are, Bart!

[Bart Ell]

Right you are, Bart!

Baseball is tricky because a season is contained to one year while most other sports have their season spread over 2.

[Rikki Gins]

Baseball is tricky because a season is contained to one year while most other sports have their season spread over 2.

Understood. Thanks, Bart.

[Rikki Gins]

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Wishing Lee Tate a very Happy Birthday! He turned 94 years old just yesterday. He is still the seventeenth oldest Major League Baseball player in the world, if not the entire universe. His initial profile is up above a little ways.

[Rikki Gins]

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Here we have the eighteenth oldest Major League ex-Baseball player, Charley Rabe. Charley, nicknamed Charley by his co-players, or better yet, Charlie, (guess they couldn't decide how to spell his first name) had a grand total of eleven Major League Baseball appearances with the 1957–1958 Cincinnati Redlegs. Charley was a pitcher, and a left handed one at that. Lefty... too bad, now there was a good nickname gone unused.

Like the vast majority of these long lived ballplayers, Charley had a prosperous ballplaying career in the minor leagues. He began a 12-year, ten-season pro career in the Cincinnati organization in 1952. After his too brief tenure in the majors, he returned to the minors and played clear up to 1963.

Charley was born on May 6, 1932, making him  93 years, 10 months, and 16 days old at the time of this posting.  He is 7 years, 8 months, and 4 days younger than our oldest ex-MLB player, Bill Greason.

Charley lives in an assisted living establishment in Mesa, Arizona. Not a bad looking place, all in all:
https://www.inspirationsofmesa.com/virtual-tour-gallery/#photo-gallery

Charley Rabe at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Rabe

[JUAN]

Rabe (Ray-bee) played for two years in the minor league town where I lived - AA ball.  I'm pretty sure I have his autograph on a ball.

[Rikki Gins]

Rabe (Ray-bee) played for two years in the minor league town where I lived - AA ball.  I'm pretty sure I have his autograph on a ball.

Fun. Thanks for the phonetic pronunciation on the name. I had thought the last three letters sounded like abe, as in Lincoln. I noticed that there is a Charley Rabe signed baseball at eBay. They want 49 dollars plus five bucks shipping for it.

[Rikki Gins]

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At last, an ex-Major League Baseball player who's career in the majors lasted for years rather than months or perhaps, as we have seen, for days. Meet pitcher Bennie Daniels, a 94 year old man who played for both the Pittsburgh Pirates (1957 - 1960) and the Washington Senators,  (1961 - 1965). Interestingly, Bennie's first pitching assignment for the Pirates took place in New York's Ebbets Field in 1957 against the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was the very last game ever played at Ebbets, and the home team won it with a score of 2 to 0.

Equally as interesting was a game that Bennie pitched as a Senator on April 9, 1962 at a new stadium in Washington, Dc. Bennie went the distance and won against the Detroit Tigers 4 to 1. One of the spectators in the stands was President John F. Kennedy.

When Bennie and two other players were traded to the Washington Senators, the one player that became a Pittsburgh Pirate in return was none other than our number two oldest MLB player Bobby Shantz.  https://ellgab.com/index.php?topic=1874.msg517251#msg517251

Mr Daniels is currently our 19th oldest ex-player. He lives in a nice looking , single family house in Compton, California.

[Walks_At_Night]

Bennie went the distance and won against the Detroit Tigers 4 to 1.

Hate it was against the Tigers but good for Bennie.  Don't see complete games any more.  Dude had a no hitter going the other day and they took him out.  Of course the bullpen loused it up.