Julio Franco - Awards and Highlights

Awards and Highlights

• 3-time All-Star (1989–91)
• MVP All-Star Game (1990)
• Led American League in batting average (.341, 1991)
• Led AL in singles (156, 1991)
• 2nd in the AL Rookie of the Year selection (1983, behind Ron Kittle)
• Led AL in at-bats (658, 1984)
• Top 10 MVP selection (8th, AL, 1994)
• Carolina League MVP (1980)
• Twice hit over .400 in the Mexican League (.423, 1999; .437, 2000)
• Oldest player to hit a Grand Slam (47, 2005, breaking his own record set in 2004 at 45)
• Oldest regularly playing non-pitcher player in MLB history (48)
• Second-oldest player to appear in MLB postseason play (48, during the 2006 postseason)
• Oldest player in Major League history to hit a home run (48)
• Second-oldest player to steal a base (48, during the 2007 season)
• Led all Dominican players in MLB history in seasons, games, at-bats, hits, and bases on balls
• Has compiled over 4,200 hits in his 26-year professional career:
  • Major League Baseball: 2586 (through end of 2007 season)
  • Minor Leagues: 618
  • Mexican League: 316
  • Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball: 286
  • Dominican Winter League: 267
  • South Korea's Korean Baseball Organization: 156
  • TOTAL: 4,229

Pete Rose and Ty Cobb are the only other players with 4,200 hits (combined majors, minors and international play) in their careers.

• Has the distinguished honor of being the last active player in the major leagues from RBI Baseball (NES)
• As of 2006, Julio Franco was the only active player to face a pitcher who pitched against Hall of Famer Ted Williams, who retired in 1960. The pitcher is Jim Kaat, who played in the majors from 1959 to 1983. Williams had batted against Kaat the final day of the 1959 season, Kaat's rookie year. Kaat walked Franco in the latter's rookie season in 1982.
• Franco was the last MLB player eligible to wear a batting helmet with no ear flaps. He elected to wear a helmet with an ear flap throughout his career.
• Franco was the sixth batter that Roger Clemens ever faced, and when the two faced each other on June 15, 2007, they became the oldest batter-pitcher pair in the major leagues since October 1, 1933.
• If he was really born before 1958, then Franco may hold MLB records for oldest to steal a base and oldest to appear in the postseason.