The Immortal Memories of Little League

You’ll remember it forever, and so will they.

The current active MLB leader in games played is Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen, who has appeared, as of this morning, in 2,059 games. After being selected in the first round of the 2005 MLB Draft straight out of high school, McCutchen played in 511 minor league games, as well as 29 games in the Arizona Fall League. The average high school baseball season lasts about 25–35 games, and travel ball teams tend to play, depending on what region of the country you’re from, 40–50 games a year. You have to add in Little League as well. (It’s worth noting that McCutchen himself has memorably written about how few baseball opportunities there are for Black youth.) So, give or take, Andrew McCutchen, the human who has probably played more games than anyone who still gets to put a glove on and run out on the field, has played probably about 3,000 baseball games in his life. McCutchen is 37 years old, his contract runs out at the end of this season and he’s having an average season for his team. This could be his last season as a major leaguer. Those 3,000 games are all he gets.

Three thousand games, obviously, is a lot of baseball games: There are probably only 30 or so people alive who have played more baseball games than that. But those 3,000 games or so are still a small percentage…