#3: Ty Tyson

Ty Tyson

Oooh, my first challenge! A guy who played only 3 years in the late 20's.

My strategy: I have two main hurdles to jump here: There's a gap of 70 years between Tyson's last year and Stair's first, and I have very little knowledge of players from this far back. My strategy is to take Tyson's last year and find the teammate who lasted the longest, then take his last year and do likewise. I'm hoping I can find some players who have had 15-20 year careers, which will allow me to span multiple decades.

1. Ty Tyson played on the 1928 Brooklyn Robins with Al Lopez.

* Already my strategy is paying off! Lopez allowed me to jump 19 years closer! However, from here, it gets tricky. Lopez last played in 1947, and that team has 2 potential links - HoF Larry Doby, who played until 1959, and Jim Heagan, who lasted until 1960. I guess I'll try both. I may have to use some funky notation to explain my logic, so bear with me.

Heagan's '60 Cubs featured 3 players who lasted until 1976. Tony Taylor, Billy Williams, and Jim Brewer. I'll notate this like so:

Heagan --> '60 Cubs --> Tony Taylor, Billy Williams, Jim Brewer
--> Taylor --> '76 Phillies
--> Williams --> '76 A's
--> Brewer --> '76 Angels

Doby's last season was actually split between 2 clubs, the Tigers and the White Sox. The Tigers featured HoF Al Kaline, who played until 1974.

Doby --> '59 Tigers --> Al Kaline
--> Kaline --> '74 Tigers

Meanwhile, the White Sox give me 3 more potential links:

Doby --> '59 White Sox --> Luis Aparicio, Norm Cash, Johnny Callison
--> Aparicio --> '73 Red Sox
--> Cash --> '74 Tigers
--> Callison --> '73 Yankees

Since Kaline and Cash get me to the same point ('74 Tigers), I'll ignore the Kaline link for now. I now have 6 different players on 6 different teams to work with.

At this point, I think it may be in my best interest to work backwards, and find teammates of Matt Stairs who may be at the tail end of a nice, long career. Obviously, the best place to start would be 1992 and 1993 Expos. Fortunately, I didn't have to go very far here. During Matt's rookie year, he played with 3 veterans who started their careers in the 70's - "El Presidente" Dennis Martinez, Rick Cerone, and HoF Gary Carter. Jackpot! I have a feeling these 3 will save my bacon numerous times. So now all I have to do is find a way to connect one of the 6 players I established a link to one of my "Big 3".

We'll start with the '76 Phillies. Right off the bat, I've got my link, Norm Cash, who the very next year went to Montreal and played with Carter. I have my link, let's see if I did it in under 6 degrees:

1. Ty Tyson played on the 1928 Brooklyn Robins with Al Lopez.
2. Al Lopez played for the 1947 Cleveland Indians with Jim Heagan.
3. Jim Heagan played on the 1960 Chicago Cubs with Tony Taylor.
4. Tony Taylor played on the 1976 Philadelphia Phillies with Dave Cash.
5. Dave Cash played on the 1977 Montreal Expos with HoF Gary Carter.
6. Gary Carter played on the 1992 Montreal Expos with Matt Stairs!

Degrees of Matt Stairs: 6

Success! That was a close one, I didn't think I was going to be able to do it.