Looking into Age 40+ Rangers Players

With the signing of Omar Vizquel this week to a minor league contract, it occurred to me that he might have been the second oldest player to sign with the Rangers. The oldest would be Nolan Ryan of course, but I thought Omar might be second, so I decided to look it up.
Broke out baseball-reference.com which lists the age of players in a calendar year. As I started looking into it, I found some interesting stats about the ages of Rangers players. Here’s some bullet points (this also assumes Vizquel will play in Arlington in 2009):

The oldest player period was Nolan Ryan. He was 46 years, roughly 7.5 months when he threw his last pitch in 1993.
Omar Vizquel was the second oldest signee for a first time Ranger at 41 years, 9 months.
If Omar Vizquel plays as a Ranger on his birthday, he will be just the third second player to play at age 42 (the first being Charlie Hough, the second being Nolan Ryan). If he wants to overtake Hough, he’d have to play as a Ranger in 2010, which is unlikely, as Hough was 42 yr, 8 mo, 3 weeks old when he played his last game as a Ranger on Sep 28, 1990.
The number of players who have played in a Rangers uniform at age 40 or older is smaller than you think. Just eleven. I thought it’d be more than that.
There were a couple years with more than one 40+ Ranger at a time. Not surprisingly, they all involved Nolan Ryan. They were 1992 (Nolan/45 & Brian Downing/41), 1991 (Nolan/44, Downing/40), 1990 (Nolan/43, Hough/42), & 1989 (Nolan/42, Hough/41),.
The first player ever to play as a Ranger at 40 was Gaylord Perry in 1980 when he was 41.
When the team was the Senators, there was never a 40+ player.
The “youngest oldest player” was aged 34. This happened in four seasons (66-68 & 71). Oddly enough, they were all years in Washington. The Rangers have never had a 34 year old be the oldest player
Some notable names that appeared on my research as “Top 3 Oldest Players for that Year” are.. Minnie Minoso (37, 1963), Don Zimmer (34, 1965), Frank Howard (35, 1972), Rico Carty (33, 1973), Toby Harrah (37, 1986), Goose Gossage (39, 1991), Mickey Tettleton (36, 1997), Mike Morgan (39, 1999), Sammy Sosa (38, 2007)
Sandy Alomar Sr (34, 1978) & Sandy Alomar Jr (39, 2005) are the only father/son duo on this age list. :)

Here is the complete list of players who have played as a Ranger at age 40 or higher. Again, this assumes that Omar Vizquel will play as a Ranger after April 23rd.
46 – Nolan Ryan (1993)
42 – Omar Vizquel (2009)
42 – Charlie Hough (1990)
41 – Brian Downing (1992)
41 – Gaylord Perry (1980)
40 – Kenny Lofton (2007)
40 – Kenny Rogers (2005)
40 – Andreas Galarraga (2001)
40 – Tony Fossas (1998)
40 – Rick Honeycutt (1994)
40 – Tom Paciorek (1987)
A caveat about the above information. While bbr is the source for my data below, it doesn’t seem to take into account the age of a player if his age changed in the season. I just went with the bbr number, as it would have been far too much work to see what the birthdate of every Rangers player was and figure it out that way. :)
Click through to the full story, as I included the complete research data from the entire franchise here. I chose the top 3 ages for each season, because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. :) If you’re reading this on a feed reader (or one of those sites that steals rss feeds to make their own stories), then you need to visit my site to get the whole thing.

Texas Rangers Years
2008: 37 – Eddie Guardado 36 – Adam Melhuse 34 – Frank Catalanotto	2007: 40 – Kenny Lofton 38 – Sammy Sosa 36 – Ron Mahay	2006: 39 – Eric Young 37 – Brian Shouse 36 – Ron Mahay	2005: 40 – Kenny Rogers 39 – Sandy Alomar, Jr. 38 – Doug Brocail
2004: 39 – Kenny Rogers 37 – Brian Jordan, Eric Young, Doug Brocail, Jeff Nelson 36 – Scott Erickson	2003: 38 – Chad Kreuter 38 – Rafael Palmeiro 37 – Ruben Sierra	2002: 37 – Rafael Palmeiro 36 – Anthony Telford 35 – Dave Burba	2001: 40 – Andres Galarraga 38 – Randy Velarde, Ken Caminiti 37 – Jeff Brantley
2000: 35 – Kenny Rogers, Rafael Palmeiro 34 – Mike Munoz, Ruben Sierra, Bill Haselman, Luis Alicea 33 – John Wetteland	1999: 39 – Mike Morgan 36 – Jeff Fassero 34 – Mark McLemore, Rafael Palmeiro, Roberto Kelly, John Burkett	1998: 40 – Tony Fossas 36 – Scott Bailes, Greg Cadaret 34 – Will Clark, Bobby Witt	1997: 36 – Mickey Tettleton, Terry Clark 35 – Ed Vosberg 34 – Mike Devereaux
1996: 35 – Mickey Tettleton, Rene Gonzales, Dave Valle, Kevin Gross 34 – Mike Henneman, Jeff Russell, Ed Vosberg 33 – Dennis Cook	1995: 39 – Danny Darwin 36 – Otis Nixon 35 – Mike Pagliarulo (There were about 7 or 8 guys at 34, too)	1994: 40 – Rick Honeycutt 38 – Jay Howell 36 – Butch Davis, Bruce Hurst, Tom Henke	1993: 46 – Nolan Ryan 36 – Gary Redus, Steve Balboni, Charlie Liebrandt 35 – Butch Davis
1992: 45 – Nolan Ryan 41 – Brian Downing 37 – Floyd Bannister	1991: 44 – Nolan Ryan 40 – Brian Downing 39 – Goose Gossage	1990: 43 – Nolan Ryan 42 – Charlie Hough 33 – Thad Bosley	1989: 42 – Nolan Ryan 41 – Charlie Hough 37 – Buddy Bell
1988: 40 – Charlie Hough 37 – Jim Sundberg 34 – Larry Parrish	1987: 40 – Tom Paciorek 39 – Charlie Hough 35 – Darrell Porter	1986: 38 – Charlie Hough 37 – Toby Harrah 36 – Bob Jones	1985: 38 – Bill Stein 37 – Cliff Johnson, Charlie Hough 36 – Toby Harrah
1984: 39 – Jim Bibby 37 – Bill Stein 36 – Charlie Hough	1983: 37 – Larry Biittner 36 – Bill Stein 35 – Charlie Hough	1982: 35 – Bill Stein 34 – Charlie Hough 33 – Doc Medich	1981: 38 – Fergie Jenkins 34 – Al Oliver, Bill Stein 33 – Larry Cox, Charlie Hough
1980: 41 – Gaylord Perry 37 – Fergie Jenkins 36 – Bud Harrelson, Rusty Staub	1979: 37 – Bert Campaneris 36 – Fergie Jenkins 34 – Dock Ellis, Sparky Lyle	1978: 36 – Bert Campaneris, Paul Lindblad 35 – Fergie Jenkins 34 – Sandy Alomar Sr.	1977: 38 – Gaylord Perry 35 – Bert Campaneris, Jim Fregosi, Darold Knwoles, Paul Lindblad 34 – Willie Horton, Mike Marshall, Steve Hargan
1976: 39 – Joe Hoerner 37 – Gaylord Perry 34 – Fritz Peterson, Jim Fregosi (the only position player over the age of 29 this year)	1975: 36 – Leo Cardenas, Gaylord Perry 35 – Willie Davis, Bill Hands 34 – Cesar Tovar, Clyde Wright	1974: 35 – Leo Cardenas 34 – Larry Brown, Bill Hands 33 – Duke Sims	1973: 36 – Sonny Siebert 33 – Rico Carty 31 – Jim Fregosi
1972: 35 – Frank Howard 34 – Don Mincher 30 – Ted Kubiak, Marty Martinez, Paul Lindblad, Casey Cox
Washington Senators Years
1971: 34 – Frank Howard 33 – Don Mincher, Curt Flood 30 – Tommy McCraw	1970: 37 – Johnny Roseboro 35 – Pedro Ramos, George Brunet, Lee Maye 33 – Joe Grzenda, Frank Howard	1969: 35 – Camilo Pascual 34 – Lee Maye 33 – Bob Humphreys	1968: 34 – Camilo Pascual 33 – Fred Valentine 32 – Bob Humphreys
1967: 34 – Jim King 33 – Camilo Pascual 32 – Fred Valentine	1966: 34 – Don Blasingame, Dick Phillips, Joe Cunningham, Ron Kline 33 – Jim King 31 – Tom Cheney	1965: 38 – Roy Sievers 36 – Steve Ridzik, Ryne Duren 34 – Don Zimmer, Marshall Bridges	1964: 37 – Roy Sievers 35 – Steve Ridzik 33 – Don Zimmer, Marshall Bridges, Bill Skowron
1963: 37 – Minnie Minoso 34 – Steve Ridzik 33 – Jim Piersall, Hobie Landrith	1962: 39 – Gene Woodling 36 – Dale Long 35 – Danny O’Connell	1961: 38 – Gene Woodling 37 – Mike Garcia 35 – Dale Long