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P.S.  Keith Olbermann wrote a similar essay in 1997, called "The Ninth Man," in which he extended the chain back to the beginning of baseball itself.  

Doc Adams was one of the New York Knickerbockers who played in the first true baseball game, held at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1846.  Adams later played against Dickey Pearce, a shortstop who is credited with inventing the bunt sometime in the 1850s.  Pearce played against Cap Anson during the 1870s, and the rest of the chain goes on from there.  

Olbermann's list goes from Adams to Pearce to Anson to Honus Wagner to Rogers Hornsby to Bob Feller to Brooks Robinson to Eddie Murray, the "eighth man," who retired in 1997.  The "ninth man" is someone who began playing in the mid-1990s and will retire in 2017 or so (perhaps Alex Rodriguez), and the "tenth man" is some as-yet-unknown future star who is about 10 years old now.

I didn't use Brooks Robinson on my list, because I could not find any game in which Feller actually pitched against Robinson.  Maybe he did, in either 1955 or 1956, but I haven't found it yet.  Murray is on Olbermann's list because he and Robinson were teammates at Baltimore in 1977.

Anyway, do a Google search on "Olbermann Ninth Man" and read the article on top of the list.

The Unbroken Chain, 1871 to 2007

by David Fleitz

Julio Franco, the 48-year-old infielder of the New York Mets, was released by the team last week, apparently ending a career that began in 1982.

Some of the articles about Franco's long career mentioned the fact that he was part of an unbroken chain that covers the entire history of major league baseball in America, dating back to when the professional game began in 1871.  Franco, during his rookie season, batted against the veteran Jim Kaat, who had been pitching in the majors since 1959.  Kaat, as a rookie for the Senators, pitched against Ted Williams, whose career began in 1939.  The careers of Williams, Kaat, and Franco comprise a 68-year span from 1939 to 2007, covered by only three players.

Now, let's stretch the chain back to 1871.

In 1939, Williams was a teammate of the veteran Lefty Grove, who as a youngster in 1927 and 1928 was a teammate of the aged Ty Cobb, who reached the majors with Detroit in 1905.  The young Cobb batted many times against the ageless Cy Young, who had started his pitching career in 1890.  In fact, Young pitched his first major league game against the Chicago White Stockings on August 6, 1890 and held Cap Anson hitless.  By this time, Anson was already a 20-year veteran, having been part of the Rockford Forest City club that played in that first season of 1871.  

So the careers of Anson, Young, Cobb, Grove, Williams, Kaat, and Franco successively overlapped each other.  Each man directly competed with or against the one following, making a continuous chain that covers 137 seasons, from 1871 to 2007, with only 7 players.

However, this chain stops with Franco (update: his career is not over.  The Braves signed him up last week).  Can we make a better 7-player succession that not only covers 1871 to the present day, but has an active player at its end?  The answer, I found, is yes.

My list goes like this:

Cap Anson played in organized professional baseball's first season, 1871, and lasted until 1897.  Late in his career, he batted against:

Bobby Wallace, who made the Hall of Fame as a shortstop but entered the major leagues as a pitcher for Cleveland in 1894.  Wallace ended his career with the Cardinals in 1918 as the teammate of a 22-year-old infielder named:

Rogers Hornsby, who batted over .400 three times and won 7 batting titles.  On April 24, 1937 Hornsby, then 41 years old, played second base for the St. Louis Browns and batted against an 18-year-old Cleveland pitcher named:

Bob Feller, who pitched for the Indians (with time out for military service) until 1956.  During his last few seasons, Feller pitched against the Detroit Tigers and faced a young outfielder named:

Al Kaline, who played his entire 22-year career with the Tigers and, like Feller, bypassed the minor leagues and went straight from high school ball to the majors.  During his last three seasons, from 1972 to 1974, Kaline batted against:

Nolan Ryan, baseball's all-time strikeout king.  Ryan pitched until 1993, when several current veterans were active, such as Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, Gary Sheffield, and more.  I could put Sammy Sosa here, since he's still active and was a teammate of Ryan's on the Texas Rangers in 1989, but Sammy sat out all of the 2006 season.  So, I'll put Griffey in this final spot, simply because he's one of my favorite players.

So, seven men - Anson, Wallace, Hornsby, Feller, Kaline, Ryan, and Griffey - form an unbroken chain that covers the entire 137-year history of professional baseball.