On Twitter yesterday, one of the writers I follow offered a fun little diversion: go to Baseball-Reference, find the box score for the first game you attended, and see if any players are still active.
He had two left from a game in 1996. I had none from my first game on September 3, 1995, but only because Tim Wakefield decided to hang up his knuckleball at the end of last season.
Just for fun, I decided to take this one step further and look at both lineups to see when each player stopped playing:
Andy Allanson – October 2, 1995
John Habyan – June 8, 1996
Dwayne Hosey – June 20, 1996
Rich Monteleone – July 11, 1996
Mike Greenwell – September 28, 1996
Mike Aldrete – September 29, 1996
Rene Gonzales – September 28, 1997
Tim Naehring – June 23, 1997
Mike Bielecki – August 16, 1997
Rex Hudler – June 23, 1998
Tony Phillips – August 15, 1999
Chili Davis – October 3, 1999
Willie McGee – October 3, 1999
Mike Macfarlane – October 3, 1999
Mike Maddux – July 4, 2000
Mark Holzemer – August 13, 2000
Jose Canseco – October 6, 2001
Luis Alicea – September 25, 2002
Chuck Finley – September 28, 2002
John Valentin – September 29, 2002
Mo Vaughn – May 2, 2003
Greg Myers – April 22, 2005
Tim Salmon – October 1, 2006
Orlando Palmeiro – September 30, 2007
J.T. Snow – September 27, 2008
Damion Easley – September 28, 2008
Garret Anderson – August 6, 2010
Tim Wakefield – September 25, 2011
About a third (9 out of 28) were finished before I graduated from high school, another 12 before I was done with college, and an inordinate number of guys played their last game on October 3, 1999. I know it makes sense because it was probably the last day of the season, but it still looks funny with them all finishing up on the same day like that. There was almost a repeat in 2002, but Alicea, Finley, and Valentin couldn’t get their schedules straightened out.
