Jamie Moyer: The Oldest Winning Pitcher

Image credits: Opinions For Days Blog

You wouldn’t expect a pitcher whose fastball topped out at 85 mph to rack up 269 major league wins. But that’s what lefthander Jamie Moyer accomplished.

He never would have made it if baseball didn’t have as strong a grip on him as he had on the ball. It took 25 years of injury-interrupted, patient perseverance that ended by making him, at the age of 49 years and 150 days, the oldest pitcher ever to win a major league game.

Along the way he pitched for 13 minor league teams and eight major league teams. Sometimes he was sent down after spring training and sometimes he went down to the minors on his own after being released, to work on his control or master the mental aspects of pitching.

Moyer’s journey began almost from the day he was born in 1962 just north of Philadelphia. As soon as he could hold a ball the left-hander was playing catch in the family driveway with his father or anybody else in the family he could corral to catch him.

As a teenager he threw hard enough to become a high school star, but not hard enough to draw scouts’ attention. It wasn’t until he learned to change speeds pitching for St. Josephs University in Philadelphia that he was drafted by the Cubs in 1984.

After two years in the minors, he won his first game for the Cubs on June 16, 1986, beating Steve Carlton and the Phillies, 7-5. He would win his last 26 years later.

It may seem counter-intuitive that a pitcher with a mediocre fastball could rely on a change-up, but the difference between speeds of 85 and 75 is just as effective as that between 95 and 85. The difference is that a fastball pitcher might throw 75 percent fastballs in a game, while 75 percent of Moyer’s pitches had to be at a different speed from the one before.

Moyer also had to rely more on control, because hitters tended to take more of his pitches. He often fell behind in the count when he tried to nibble at the edges and either missed or the umpire would not give him the call, and when he had to come in with a strike, hitters pounced on it.

That – and his lengthy career – resulted in his giving up a record 522 home runs.

Jamie Moyer gave up a record 522 home run during his long career. Image credits: Image Shack

Moyer was 34 years old when he finally found success and stability in Seattle in 1996. During the next 10 years he won 145 games, including two 20-win seasons, and was 3-1 in three playoffs, though the Mariners did not reach the World Series. 

In August 2006 the Mariners traded him to the Phillies, where he apparently found the fountain of youth.  He was 45 in 2008 when he helped pitch the Phillies to the World Series with a 16-7, 3.71 ERA record.

In his first and last World Series start, he was relieved in the seventh inning with a 4-3 lead over Tampa Bay. The Rays tied it, but the Phillies won it in the ninth and went on to win the Series.

That would have been a career-capper for most players, but not Jamie Moyer. He won 21 games over the next two years before his arm wore out and the Phillies released him. Faced with the need for Tommy John surgery or retirement, he chose to undergo the operation and year-long rehab.

He was 49 when the Colorado Rockies signed him on January 18, 2012. After losing his first two starts. on May 16 he started at home against Arizona, gave up 1 run on 6 hits in 6 1/3 innings, walked 2 and struck out 5. At bat he drove in 2 runs in the 6-1 win. Moyer started two more games, took two losses, and was released.

Baseball still hadn’t relaxed its grip: he spent the next six weeks pitching for two minor league teams before finally surrendering to retirement.