Good Ol’ Ballplayers Having Fine Ol’ Time

In Boston Garden, 38-year-old Robert Parish just finished his 13th playoff series in 16 years in the NBA. In Arlington, Tex., 45-year-old Nolan Ryan continues a pitching career that already includes a record seven no-hitters. At Redskin Park in suburban Washington, 34-year-old Monte Coleman, an agile linebacker on pass coverage, just returned to minicamp to kick off his 14th year with the team.

Never will there be a forever in elite-level sport. Yet more and more careers these days seem to be lasting longer and longer. Athletes clearly are trying harder than ever to hang on -- and the reason is simple:

M-O-N-E-Y.

Parish during the regular season signed a one-year contract extension with the Celtics worth $3.5 million. (For contrast, Abe Pollin and two partners bought the Bullets in 1964 for a record $1.1 million.)

“They kept using Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) as a yardstick,” Parish told Boston reporters. “They said how he always got one-year contracts near the end of his career, so why should I get two years? ...

“I don’t doubt my skills. If I thought my skills were diminishing or slowing down, I’d be the first one to say so. I still think I’m one of the top five centers in the league.”

Like a curve from Ryan, who turned 45 in January, this notion of extended longevity may be something that seems hard and true -- then dips into fallacy, because none of the major leagues keeps precise records on it.

“Lots of players played late in their careers when I was breaking in,” said Ryan, who has either been on the disabled list or pitching ineffectively most of the early season. “There’s more incentive to play longer now and -- with better training techniques and advances in sports medicine and all -- more ways to do it.”

“Football used to be a six-month season,” Coleman said during minicamp. “That’s no longer true. We won the Super Bowl in late January and were back working again in late March. In the offseason, I’ll lift three times a week and run three times a week. The lift sessions last about two hours each. I’m into distance running now, 2 1/2 miles in the morning and 2 1/2 miles in the evening.”

Baseball, a fellow in its research department said, estimates the average career lasts four to five years “because there seem to be fewer players in the six-to-seven range, fewer in the two-to-three range and more in the three-to-six range.”

There is a persuasive argument for men working longer at play -- and one equally sound for careers actually being shorter than they were several years ago.

“I have a feeling that one of the effects of Plan B (free agency in the NFL) is to prolong certain careers,” said Dick Bertelsen, general counsel to the NFL Players Association. He cited former tight end John Spagnola as an example.

“In 1988, the Eagles used their top draft pick on tight end Keith Jackson,” Bertelsen said. “That made Spagnola expendable. The next year, under normal circumstances, the Eagles would have carried Spagnola until the end of camp and then cut him.

“But 1989 was the first year of Plan B. So in February he was a free agent, and signed with Green Bay. He had time to pick the best spot for him, rather than being cut in September when rosters are all but set.”

Pitcher Jack Morris is an example of a player able to, in Bertelsen’s words, “find a niche in a league.” After his usefulness to the Tigers was over, Morris through free agency has been able to prolong his career in Minnesota and Toronto.

The argument against players playing longer is made by trainer Herm Schneider, whose White Sox have Carlton Fisk.

“I don’t think that the journeymen, what we used to call The Grizzled Veterans, are lasting as long,” Schneider said. “Lots of those guys used to hang around 10 years or so.

“The reason is money. Salaries. If you’re very good instead of okay, like Fisk and Ryan and some others, you stay. If you’re okay to good, you’re vulnerable to some younger player who comes cheaper.”

“You used to have a utility player who also was a pinch hitter,” said Ryan. “Now you just have the pinch hitter. So many specialists. With artificial turf in the ‘60s, they started building around speed, and didn’t go with a lot of older guys. Then the DH came in and allowed players who could still hit but maybe couldn’t run or play a position to stay around.”

The Redskins’ Coleman was a specialist as a rookie in 1979 and holds the same job description heading into this season’s training camp. He plays mostly on passing downs, but accumulates as many minutes on the field as some defensive starters.

“I’m not going to put a limit on how long I can go,” Coleman said. “I feel good and still enjoy the game. I hope when my time’s up it’s because I missed more than a step. Everybody misses one step with age. I hope it’s more than one step when the coaches say it’s time to go.”

A 1991 career longevity study for the NBA, conducted by The Cook Clinic of Portland, Ore., was inconclusive because half the 325 players involved were still active. The data from players whose careers began in 1984-85 showed: No significant difference in length of career among the five positions, although centers played the longest. Power forwards suffer the most injuries.

Surgical advances help players return to action more quickly and also lengthen their athletic lives.

Parish, by being the oldest active player in the NBA, usually gets the most attention, but the current workhorse -- by far -- is Moses Malone. His 48,000-plus career minutes are almost 10,000 more than Parish has mustered.

Malone is nearly two years younger than Parish; he has been playing professionally two years longer, opting for the now-defunct ABA instead of the University of Maryland out of high school in 1974. Also, Parish has never played 3,000 minutes in any of his 16 seasons; Malone has five seasons of 3,000-plus minutes.

“Moses does an unbelievable job of conditioning,” said Milwaukee Bucks trainer Mark Pfeil. “About an hour before each practice, he comes in and rides the bike. Does it till he’s soaking wet. He also watches what he eats.”

The Bucks also hide Malone, who turned 37 on March 23, on defense whenever possible.

Malone declined to comment about his longevity, but Bullets Coach Wes Unseld said: “Lots of things go into lasting as long as he has -- including a whole lot of luck. My daughter suffered a more serious injury (to her knee) getting out of the car in our driveway (in early March) than Moses has in his entire career in pro basketball.”

In baseball, there are so many injury variables that affect the length of careers.

Clubs provide year-around training. And Ryan, Pete Rose, Steve Carlton and some others are proof that extra work pays off as never before.

“Pete once said that a ballplayer needs the body of a 20 year old and the mind of a 14 year old,” said Gene Coleman, director of conditioning for the Astros and the man with whom Ryan began working closely in 1980. “In the early ‘80s, the mind-set was that you were over the hill at about 32.

“I started with the Astros in ’76 -- and Ryan when he arrived was one of the reasons our program with pitchers became successful. He said he’d only be able to lift twice between starts, which was twice as much as anyone else was doing at the time.

“Nolan has been a role model for Roger Clemens. And now Clemens has become a role model for younger players.”

Probably, the aging athlete knows his career is in serious decline before anyone else but refuses to admit it. The end is near when his peers say something similar to the line that surfaces now and then in NBA clubhouses: “You gave a hell of an effort out there tonight -- but you hurt us.”