Honeycutt, Eckersley Age Successfully

Dennis Eckersley turned 42 Thursday to catch Rick Honeycutt, the oldest player in the majors. Appropriately, they partied together.

Eckersley pitched a perfect ninth inning to save a 5-4 victory for the St. Louis Cardinals over the San Diego Padres after Honeycutt restricted a treacherous San Diego threat to one run in the eighth, an inning in which Tony Gwynn, respecting Honeycutt’s slider, chose to sacrifice rather than hit and run.

Honeycutt said he was flattered by that and added: “You know he’s going to put the ball in play and I was happy he chose the course he did. You hate taking the bat out of his hands, but we did the same thing with [Gary] Gaetti in the bottom of that inning. Sometimes the situation requires it. My main job was to keep the inning from getting out of hand.”

He has done that so well that St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa says: “If there’s a Hall of Fame for set-up men, he should be in it.”

In a career that began in 1976, Honeycutt is with his seventh big league team, including the Dodgers, with whom he spent three-plus years.

The key to his ongoing success: encountering La Russa when both were at Oakland.

“Tony never seems to lose confidence in me,” he said. “He doesn’t misuse or abuse me.

“Every time I think my time’s up, he finds a way to pump me up. There’s a lot of mutual respect. Five years ago I never would have dreamed I’d still be pitching. Now I take it a year at a time.”

And, of course, he’s still older than Eckersley, who has saved both games of the current playoff series. Honeycutt smiled and said:

“Eck and I both have a lot of pride. It’s a challenge every time we take the mound. The only thing people seem to talk about is our age. If we don’t do well, people are quick to say we’re too old. It’s a motivation. To still be playing and contributing is a rewarding feeling.”