Just wondering, why the exception for Honus Wagner.

I guess I don't understand what exception you're talking about. Did you mean the fact he was with Louisville and Pittsburgh is an exception to the single franchise? After the 1899 season the National League was contracted to 8 teams with Louisville owner Barney Dreyfuss buying 50% of the Pittsburgh franchise and shifting the Louisville charter to Pittsburgh. The same goes for Fred Clarke, another of the 22 single franchise players.

Ted Williams and Jim Rice

You'd think, right? Rice was only 16 years. Williams was 19. If Williams hadn't given up the years to WWII and Korea, just think what his numbers would have been. Shoe in for 3000 hits and you'd have to think 600+ homers considering he was at 521 while missing 5 years of his prime.

They are both part of the 177 with at least 10 years, it's the 20 years that makes it so elite a group. I'd have thought Ernie Banks, "Mr. Cub" would have been one of the few also, he too comes up just short with 19 years.

20 years is a long, long time.

Great, informative, fun list. Poor Mel Harder....

Thanks. 

v3

Great list...fyi a typo...your notes for Trammell only say until 1986 instead of 1996.

Thanks for the keen eye rmpaq5. I'm a stickler for those kind of things too (hate errors like that). Fixed

Hopeful to see Yadier Molina on this list someday.  That means he plays five more years, and more importantly, he never leaves for another team!

Did Lou Whitaker come up a year after Tram or retire before him? I feel they always played together but I can’t say for sure how there careers began or ended.

randylaw 

Feels like they had identical careers, doesn't it? Awfully darn close. Trammel played from 1977 to 1996 for the Tigers. Whitaker parallels except he retired a year earlier 1977 to 1995.