# 1 > Tim Stoddard ov ercame some pretty big odds by pitching professionally until he was 36 years old. "I was like a freak back then," recalls Stoddard, a 13-year veteran of major league bullpens who is now a pitching coach at Northwestern University. Stoddard, who was 6-foot-7 and 250 pounds in his playing days, marvels at the number of pitchers in the game today who are throwing way past the age at which he retired. He says there's no doubt that today's big league pitchers take much better care of themselves than his contemporaries and are thus able to extend careers into their 40s.
# 2 > Stoddard points to last season's playoffs, which featured five oldies but goodies who are still thriving:Detroit's Kenny Rogers ( now 42 years old ), the New York Yankkee's Rany Johnson ( 43 and now with Arizona ), the New York Mets Tom Glavine ( 40 ) and Reberto Hernandez ( 41 ) and San Diego's David Wells ( 42 ).
Of course, the list of golden arms doesn't end there. Three weeks shy of his 44th birthday, Jamie Moyer agreed to a two-year contract extension with the Phillies last October. "Is there an [ age ] where you're supposed to stop?" Moyer asked Philadelphia reporters in late October. "I don't think so." Greg Maffux, still going strong at age 40, feels the same way. And so do a trio of 40-year old Boston hurlers__starters Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield and reliever Mike Timlin. Looking ahead to this season, Atlanta's John Smoltz, San Francisco's Tim Worrell and Cincinnati's Rheal Cormier will all celebrate their 40th birthdays.
# 3 > Major league pitchers may not be winning 20 games a year as much as they used to, but they are undoubtedly staying on the mound much longer. Stoddard would have liked to pitch until he was 40, but a knee injury ultimately led to an arm injury, and his career ended somewhat prematurely. "In all aspects, things are better for pitchers in today's game," says Stoddard, who also played on North Carolina State's 1974 NCAA championship basketball team. "Pitchers are taught better, they have better mechanics, they're in better shape and they have better use of videos. The biggest thing is probably medicine [ has advanced ]. Back when I was playing, if you gad a rotator-cuff injury, you were done. If you had an elbow [ injury ], you were done." Stoddard was with the Orioles organization in 1977, and he still remembers the landmark 10-year, $2.3 million free-agent contract Baltimore pitcher Wayne Garland signed with Cleveland before that season. A year later, Garland went down with a bad rotator cuff and never made it all the way back. "That wouldn't happen today," Stoddard says. "Now, guys have surgery and come right back. They have their elbow tightened up and come back throwing even harder."
# 4 > There's little doubt that veteran pitches like Johnson, Roger Clemens and Schilling can still bring it, but power doesn't necessarily guarantee perseverance. "I think if you look at each and every guy that is ... 40 or older, you'll find that they are so solid, both fundamentally and mechanically," says new San Diego Manager Bud Black. "They've all been able to extend their careers so long because they haven't taxed their arms. That's just knowing how to pitch, and what pitches to throw." Maddux has been a master at painting the corners for years, and his ability to change speeds still baffles hitters who were wearing diapers back in 1986, when the crafty right-hander broke in with the Cubs. The same can be said for Rogers, who went 17-8 for the upstart Detroit Tigers last year and added three more wins in the postseason.
# 5 > "I think the success is just from the past experience," Rogers says. "I try to learn from them as much as possible and make me better in whatever ways I can." There are plenty of quality young pitchers in baseball, including Justin Verlander, Rogers hard-throwing teammate and last seasons's American League Rookie of the Year. But for as good as the 23-year-old Verlander is, he had a long way to go before catching up to legendary talents like Rogers, Johnson and Maddux. "I think you'll be seening more and more pitchers staying in the game into their 40s," Black says. "The resources for longevity are there__the medical staff, better nutrition and just a lot more knowledge to keep them pitching. But really, the key thing might be that the guys that are staying around so long are just really talented. I don't think you can ever overlook how important that is."
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