A thread on BBTF about Chipper Jones got me to thinking about how long players stay with one team and has it changed drastically recently. So I figured, what the heck, lets check!
Using the Lahman Database - all stats from 1871 through 2011 in MS Access/SQL/csv format - I was able to make a table of players who have stayed with one team for various lengths of time and for their full careers.
Some basic trivia first...
For those 115 who played 1000+ games with just one 1 franchise we see the following breakdown...
However, there is a piece missing. How many players retired with 1000+ games total in each decade and what percentage stayed with just one team?
Basically what this shows is players being with just one franchise was an extremely rare thing in the early days of baseball, then it became common for players retiring in the 40's/50's and 70's with two big drops, the 1980's and the 2000's. The 80's would've had most stars who peaked in the 70's when free agency first came to being. I suspect 10%+ of 1000 game players will not stick with teams anymore, that a 5% rate is most likely going forward for an assortment of reasons. From teams trying to cut their budgets (Montreal in the 90's/00's, Oakland & Tampa Bay today) to players hanging on to break records or reach milestones or just not wanting to quit.
Also of note: just to make everyone depressed not one Jay has played for 1000 games with just Toronto. Our top 'single franchise' guy is Garth Iorg at 931 followed by the top active player, Adam Lind at 621 then it drops to Russ Adams at 286 and Travis Snider at 232 (!) with Danny Ainge at 211 the only other one over 200 games. Jerry Garvin's 196 is the highest for a pitcher followed by Casey Janssen at 166. The guys with 1000+ in Toronto are Tony Fernandez (1450), Carlos Delgado (1423), Vernon Wells (1393), Lloyd Moseby (1392), Ernie Whitt (1218), George Bell (1181), Willie Upshaw & Rance Mulliniks (1115 each), Joe Carter (1039) and Jesse Barfield (1032). Whitt was the closest to being a 'pure Jay' with just 110 games elsewhere while Moseby, Wells, Upshaw and Barfield only played for one other team. Carter actually played more games with other teams than he did for Toronto (1150 vs 1039).
Using the Lahman Database - all stats from 1871 through 2011 in MS Access/SQL/csv format - I was able to make a table of players who have stayed with one team for various lengths of time and for their full careers.
Some basic trivia first...
- The 3000 Game Club (aka most games for one franchise)...
- Carl Yastrzemski, 3308 for Boston
- Hank Aaron, 3076 for Milwaukee/Atlanta
- Stan Musial, 3026 for St Louis
- Cal Ripken, 3001 for Baltimore
- Number of times a player has played x games for a franchise (note: lots of double counting of players)
- Just 1: 1,941
- 2-99: 26,218
- 100-499: 10,006
- 500-999: 1,595
- 1000-1999: 540
- 2000-2999: 58
- 3000+: 4
- Total Players with just 1 franchise: 8,032 (out of 17,735 ML players ever or 45.3%)
- Total Players with 1000+ games with 1 franchise: 115
- Total Players with 2000+ games with 1 franchise: 36
- Total Players with 3000+ games with 1 franchise: 3 (Aaron played for the Brewers at the end)
For those 115 who played 1000+ games with just one 1 franchise we see the following breakdown...
- Still active in 2011: 18
- Retired in the decade starting...
- Pre 1890: 0
- 1890: 2
- 1900: 0
- 1910: 1
- 1920: 6
- 1930: 6
- 1940: 11
- 1950: 12
- 1960: 8
- 1970: 18
- 1980: 8
- 1990: 14
- 2000: 11 (doesn't count guys who retired in 2009 or 2010)
However, there is a piece missing. How many players retired with 1000+ games total in each decade and what percentage stayed with just one team?
- 1880: 4 players, 0% with one franchise
- 1890: 57 players, 3.5% with one franchise
- 1900: 58 players, 0% with one franchise
- 1910: 79 players, 1.3% with one franchise
- 1920: 84 players, 7.1% with one franchise
- 1930: 79 players, 7.6% with one franchise
- 1940: 92 players, 12.0% with one franchise
- 1950: 78 players, 15.4% with one franchise
- 1960: 111 players, 7.2% with one franchise
- 1970: 124 players, 14.5% with one franchise
- 1980: 182 players, 4.4% with one franchise
- 1990: 166 players, 8.4% with one franchise
- 2000: 195 players, 5.6% with one franchise
- Still Active: 153 players, 11.8% with one franchise
Basically what this shows is players being with just one franchise was an extremely rare thing in the early days of baseball, then it became common for players retiring in the 40's/50's and 70's with two big drops, the 1980's and the 2000's. The 80's would've had most stars who peaked in the 70's when free agency first came to being. I suspect 10%+ of 1000 game players will not stick with teams anymore, that a 5% rate is most likely going forward for an assortment of reasons. From teams trying to cut their budgets (Montreal in the 90's/00's, Oakland & Tampa Bay today) to players hanging on to break records or reach milestones or just not wanting to quit.
Also of note: just to make everyone depressed not one Jay has played for 1000 games with just Toronto. Our top 'single franchise' guy is Garth Iorg at 931 followed by the top active player, Adam Lind at 621 then it drops to Russ Adams at 286 and Travis Snider at 232 (!) with Danny Ainge at 211 the only other one over 200 games. Jerry Garvin's 196 is the highest for a pitcher followed by Casey Janssen at 166. The guys with 1000+ in Toronto are Tony Fernandez (1450), Carlos Delgado (1423), Vernon Wells (1393), Lloyd Moseby (1392), Ernie Whitt (1218), George Bell (1181), Willie Upshaw & Rance Mulliniks (1115 each), Joe Carter (1039) and Jesse Barfield (1032). Whitt was the closest to being a 'pure Jay' with just 110 games elsewhere while Moseby, Wells, Upshaw and Barfield only played for one other team. Carter actually played more games with other teams than he did for Toronto (1150 vs 1039).
