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re: Will we ever see a 30 year vet in professional sports?
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:09 pm to Thundercles
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:09 pm to Thundercles
quote:
Tennis stars always hit a wall in their late 30's. The oldest Grand Slam winner ever is 37 (Djokovic). I'm sure you can keep playing but the decline is unreal. Look at what happened to the Williams sisters.
Guys are actually playing better for longer than in the past. Used to be uncommon to see a guy winning a major much past 30.
Nobody is making past 40 though. Even Djokovic. The injury bug eventually comes.
2
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:09 pm to Hawgnsincebirth55
Kevin VanDam fished professionally for 31 years, retired at the end of the season last year.
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:10 pm to MikeHoncho47
quote:
Professional race car drivers can make 30 years.
Car racing is an interesting category. To be in F1 you have to have lightning reflexes which fade over time, although Fernando is proving that modern F1 drivers can still be good in their 40s. But of the majority of F1 drivers whose careers don't last that long, they can then retire to endurance racing, where consistency and taking care of your equipment are the greatest values, not bleeding edge speed. Winning Le Mans has a lot of prestige, even though many of the drivers are past their peak skills.
BTW, the oldest driver to win a professional car race was Paul Newman. In 1995, at age 70, Newman shared a car with Mark Martin and Tommy Kendall, and won the GTS class at the 24 hrs of Daytona, and amazingly finished 3rd in the overall classification.
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:11 pm to usc6158
quote:
Guys are actually playing better for longer than in the past. Used to be uncommon to see a guy winning a major much past 30.
Yeah, all the 36/37 year old titles are held by Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer. Mostly Djokovic. And one from 1972.
Diet, medicine and training doing work.
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:11 pm to danilo
quote:
Jamie Moyer started in the minors at age 21 and played his last MLB game at 49.
Fun fact I always like about Jamie Moyer: entering 1992 (his age 29 season) he was completely out of baseball. The Cubs invited him to spring training, but he didn't make the team and instead was offered a position as a minor league pitching coach (which he declined). In May, the Tigers contacted him and offered him a minor league contract and he spent the entire season in AAA. He would also start the 1993 season in the minors, this time in the Orioles organization.
For most players being relegated to the minors for an entire season when pushing 30 is a death sentence for their career, especially someone who's prior accomplishments had been so mediocre (4.0 career WAR to that point). And yet Moyer would go on to pitch in 19 more MLB seasons AFTER turning 30, accumulating an impressive career war of 50.0. Definitely one of the most unique career arches in pro sports history.
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:14 pm to blueridgeTiger
quote:
Closest I can think of is Nolan Ryan - two years in minor league baseball and 27 in the majors for a total of 29 years.
I'll throw in Satchel Paige. He started his career in the Negro Leagues at age 19 and then "retired" at age 46, completing 28 years of professional baseball. He then came back and pitched 3 innings for the Kansas City A's at 58 years old. He only allowed 1 base runner over those 3 innings
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:15 pm to usc6158
quote:Yep. You would think Roddick is in his mid 50s. He has been retired for 12 years and he is only 41
Guys are actually playing better for longer than in the past. Used to be uncommon to see a guy winning a major much past 30.
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:15 pm to Thundercles
quote:
Diet, medicine and training doing work.
And a steady stream of PEDs. Doping is rampant in tennis.
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:16 pm to usc6158
If Roddick had the modern tennis players “diet” he would have been an absolute unit.
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:23 pm to lsupride87
I thought Federer was considered clean.
I know there’s a ton of speculation about Nadal being on PEDs
I know there’s a ton of speculation about Nadal being on PEDs
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:26 pm to Keys Open Doors
None of them were clean in the last 10 years. Spain did start it yes, but everyone followed suit in tennis with doping. It’s the modern day cycling
Posted on 10/23/24 at 3:29 pm to kciDAtaE
He won titles 26 years apart
Posted on 10/23/24 at 4:18 pm to Hawgnsincebirth55
tough to do in NHL and football, but bball and mlb, juiced up like lebron, why not
Posted on 10/23/24 at 4:24 pm to Gravitiger
quote:
Connors was competitive in his early 40s.
If you want to strawman an all timer making a late run in a major, cool. He was no where near a dominant player in his 40s, and doesn't change the fact that 40-50 year old body fundamentally cant withstand the pounding it takes to be at a top level across multiple tournaments, let alone an entire season.
Posted on 10/23/24 at 4:35 pm to Hawgnsincebirth55
It’s funny, for all the much better athletes, training and sports medicine players are more fragile and less durable than ever before.
Posted on 10/23/24 at 4:36 pm to Hawgnsincebirth55
Posted on 10/23/24 at 4:42 pm to Hawgnsincebirth55
John Daly 
Posted on 10/23/24 at 5:25 pm to Seeing Grey
quote:I don't think you know what "straw man" means, because that is what you are doing here.
If you want to strawman an all timer making a late run in a major, cool. He was no where near a dominant player in his 40s, and doesn't change the fact that 40-50 year old body fundamentally cant withstand the pounding it takes to be at a top level across multiple tournaments, let alone an entire season.
No one said "dominant" or "top level" for an "entire season." The adjective used was "competitive."
This post was edited on 10/23/24 at 5:30 pm
Posted on 10/23/24 at 5:27 pm to lsupride87
quote:He made multiple ATP semis and finals in his early 40s. He just didn’t play very many tournaments at all.
33 in world when he turned 40
One month later he was 78
Three months later he was 85
6 months later he was 148
At 41 he was 278
At 42 he was 683
Posted on 10/23/24 at 6:08 pm to lsufball19
quote:
and lost in a playoff in 2009 for the British Open at age 60.
That feat does not get the recognition it deserves. Every other player in the top 10 that week was at least twenty years younger and only 1 was alive when he won his first tournament. With respect to Woods at the 2000 US Open, it would've been the most remarkable single tournament accomplishment in history,
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