At forty-nine years old, Jamie Moyer is trying to pitch another season

Feel-good sports story o' the day: At forty-nine years old, having retired after the 2010 season, Jamie Moyer is now trying to pitch another season

"At 49 years and four months, Moyer not only is older than Robert Redford was when he played Roy Hobbs in "The Natural'' (46 when filming began), he's older than was Wilford Brimley (48 at start of filming), who portrayed old manager Pop Fisher."

Older than Wilford Brimley?? Do numbers even go that high?

Moyer's is an amazing story even if he fails to make the cut. In March of 1993, when he was 30 1/2 years old, he had a lifetime record of 34-54, with only six major league wins in his previous four seasons, and no wins in MLB since 1990. He went 0-5 in the bigs in 1991, then pitched the entire 1992 season for the Toledo Mud Hens. He started the 1993 season pitching for Rochester, where he went 6-0 with a minuscule 1.67 ERA, prompting the Orioles to call him up. As they say, the rest is history. Well, sorta. He wasn't that effective with the Orioles (25-22 in three seasons), and he had a mediocre 4.50 ERA in his one year with the BoSox, but then he ended up in Seattle, where the time, the place, and the man finally fit together. His three best seasons in Seattle were 17-5, 21-7, and 20-6, the last of which came in their unforgettable 116-win season, when Moyer finished 4th in the Cy Young balloting.

He may still have some gas in the tank. He has no fastball, but he never did, and that fact never kept him from winning in the past. In 2009, at age 45, he was 16-7 with the Phillies, with an ERA under 4.00, although his fastball topped out at 82 or 83. If he can win a game for the Rockies this year, he would become the oldest man ever to win a major league ballgame.

Trivia: Moyer's father-in-law is Digger Phelps.

(Re: the age record. Hall of Famer Phil Niekro pitched an entire season at age 48, and won seven games, but he retired after that season. You old timers may remember that another Hall of Fame knuckleballer, Hoyt Wilhelm, pitched in 1972, when he started the season at 49 years, nine months, but he worked exclusively in relief and never won a game that year. Wilhelm did manage to post a loss on June 24, about one month before his 50th birthday. He made his last appearance 16 days before his 50th birthday, and went out in grand style, pitching two innings of scoreless ball. Wilhelm was only making up for what he lost on the other end of his career - he had been nearly 30 when he made his major league debut.)