Happy birthday, Kenny Rogers

Happy birthday to Kenny Rogers, who turns 49 today.

Its kind of insane to me that Kenny Rogers is 49 years old, because it wasn't that long ago that he was pitching.  But then, Rogers pitched until he was 43, and even got votes for the Cy Young Award as a 41 year old (tying Joe Nathan for 5th in the CYA balloting in 2006).

Rogers was a 39th round pick in 1982, was drafted as a pitcher even though he didn't pitch in high school, didn't pitch particularly well in the minors, didn't make the majors until 1989, and still won 219 games, put up a career 51.1 bWAR (which is 94th all time), ended his career 57th in games played among pitchers and 92nd in innings pitched.

Rogers had three stints with Texas, and things ended badly here late in his career, due to conflicts with Tom Hicks and the cameraman-pushing incident that resulted in a lawsuit.  But Rogers is a remarkable success story, and one of the best pitchers the Rangers have ever developed, and was inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame in 2011.

Go check out his B-R page and marvel at how unique his career was.