The Oldest Current Major League Baseball Players

Now that Fernando Rodney is no longer on a roster, the oldest Major Leaguer is Albert Pujols, who is currently 39. Rich Hill is the second-oldest.

I don't know the answer to this, but I wonder how long it's been since there hasn't been anybody who is at least 40 in the Majors?

Tales from the ArXiv: Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer

If I had done this study, I would make a video submission to the Gallery of Nonlinear Images (may it rest in peace), and I would set it to the tune of the song Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer. Just saying...

Estimating Expected Age from a Name

Fivethirtyeight.com has some very cool infographics that summarizes some basic features of distributions of names for people based on age. Very cool stuff!

One of the plotted examples is "Joseph", which has a median age of 37. The median "Mason" is age 6. I am around that age mentally, so I guess it fits. (Or maybe I'm just ahead of my time?) One thing I noticed is that the female names with old medians include many that I definitely associate with older people (but I don't feel the same association for the male names with old medians), though that might well be a function of things like The Golden Girls --- which was brought up in the article --- and panels from The Far Side.

(Tip of the cap to Anna Iwaniec Hickerson.)

Trader Jack is Back!

Apparently, 80-years-young Trader Jack Mckeon is going to be named interim manager of the Florida Marlins. First of all, that's old school! Second of all, I approve!

(This is almost as cool as Scott Coolbaugh being named the hitting coach of the Rangers, which is only cool because it's a private joke from back in the day.)

Update:: Courtesy of Rob Neyer, here is an article that puts Trader Jack's career into perspective.

Update 2 (6/21/11): Rob Neyer mentions some active oldsters who are even older than Trader Jack. My favorite person (by far) on this list is of course Vin Scully.

Update 3 (6/21/11): Trader Jack is so old school that he even smoked a cigar in the dugout. For those of you on Facebook, here are better pictures.