Generations

 Maybe you missed it this week with all the other news happening, but Rich Hill pitched another baseball game the other night. Went five innings for the Kansas City Royals, gave up six hits and an earned run, struck out one in a 6-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs.

Rich Hill is 45 years old.

The Royals were the 14th MLB team for which he's pitched.

The first was the Cubs, for whom he debuted 20 years ago this summer.

Tuesday night he was pitching against them, and the player he struck out was Ian Happ. Ian Happ is 30. He was 10 years old when Rich Hill first took the hill for the Cubs.

Twenty years later, he goes down swinging to the very same Rich Hill.

This is generational stuff, and there's nothing baseball loves more than generational stuff. Largely this is because it encompasses so many generations, and has been a touchstone to those generations in a uniquely American way. The first National Association game -- the predecessor to the National League -- was played in Fort Wayne five years before George Armstrong Custer rode to his doom above the Little Bighorn. America was still a spry 95 years young then.

Now?

Now here it is all these years later, and Rich Hill is still pitching at 45. He's the oldest player to take part in a major-league game since 2012, when Jamie Moyer took the mound for the Colorado Rockies seven months shy of his 50th birthday.

So what does this all mean, generation-wise?

Consider:

When Rich Hill pitched his first MLB game, Julio Franco was still playing.

Franco played his first MLB game on April 23, 1982.

Among others, Gaylord Perry was still playing then.

Perry made his MLB debut on April 14, 1962.

Among others, Satchel Paige was still playing then.

Satchel Paige played his first Negro Leagues game in 1927.

So, three degrees of separation (if I'm reading this right) between Rich Hill and Satchel Paige. Three degrees of separation between 1927 and 2025.

Generations, man. They make the baseball go 'round.