These days, the old long to be young. This, of course, is nothing new, but in recent history, opportunities have finally been afforded to us to do something about it. Men buy sports cars. Women feel inadequately old while still in their thirties. Twentysomethings without college degrees, having lived less than a third of their lives, feel as though the world has left them to rot by the wayside.
In this strange 21st century, a 48-year-old man named Julio Franco goes to work every day, doing what most others have stopped doing a decade ago. To the left you see him become the oldest man ever to hit a home run, but things like age are for us to keep track of, not him. To Franco, he is not 25 or 35 or 48. He's Julio Franco, first baseman, New York Mets.
Following is a photographic retrospective of a major-league career that spans as long as this author's lifetime.