At 49, Moyer Is Still in There Pitching Darron Cummings/Associated Press Jamie Moyer, the oldest pitcher to throw a shutout, is hoping to make the Rockies' rotation. 13, 1932, in the first game of a doubleheader at Ebbets Field, a Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher named Jack Quinn threw five shutout innings to beat the St. Louis Cardinals. Quinn was 49 years 74 days old, the oldest pitcher to win a major league game. The Ancient Mariner (and Phillie, and Cub, and Ranger, and Red Sox, and Oriole, and Cardinal) Jamie Moyer has played in a lot of places and made a lot of pitches. At age 49, he just keeps throwing. More career wins (267) than Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford, Juan Marichal and Catfish Hunter. Has faced 23 Hall of Famers. Started his career before 15 players on Rockies" 40-man roster were born - including four pitchers now competing with him for a rotation spot. Has played in 49 ballparks, including 14 that no longer stand. Older than 8 current major league managers. Older than 16 current major league general managers. From ages 27 to 29, Moyer was 2-11. From ages 38 to 40, Moyer was 54-21. Career leader in home runs allowed (511). Started the last game before lights were installed at Wrigley Field. Beat the Hall of Famer Steve Carlton in his first major league game. Second in career wins after age 40, with 103 (Phil Niekro had 121). Beat the 1986 Mets and the 1998 Yankees. Born Nov. 18, 1962, four months before the Beatles released their first album in Britain. Moyer's Stops I figured my daily life is going to incorporate playing catch, throwing batting practice, playing golf and some physical activity, so why not rehab it all the way and just see how I feel? And why not pitch? Moyer said. Jamie Moyer is two months older than Quinn was then. He is fighting for a job in the Colorado Rockies" starting rotation, competing with several pitchers who were not born when he pitched his first major league game, in 1986. "At 33, when I couldn't play anymore, I had trouble physically," said Milwaukee Brewers Manager Ron Roenicke, the first batter Moyer faced in the majors. So I don't get it. I don't get how a guy can do that for that long. Moyer is a father of eight who wears old-fashioned stirrups and thanks the plate umpire whenever he leaves a game. He is older than 8 current managers and 16 current general managers. He has pitched in 49 major league ballparks, and started the last game at Wrigley Field before lights were installed there. On Monday, on a back field at the Rockies" spring training complex, minor leaguers for the Arizona Diamondbacks shelled Moyer for six hits and four runs in less than two innings. The performance included home runs on consecutive pitches. For another player trying to make a team, it might have been troubling. If the Rockies cut Moyer, he will be forced to confront retirement for the first time in decades. But he is not easily discouraged. "I could use this year as a steppingstone," Moyer said. Either I'm going to take a step forward, or take a step out. Moyer holds the major league record for home runs allowed, with 511. But he also has 267 career victories, more than Hall of Famers like Whitey Ford and Bob Gibson. Not bad for a man who led the National League in earned runs allowed in his first full season, and who was offered a coaching job by the Chicago Cubs when they released him at age 29. That was two decades ago this month, and Moyer's wife, Karen, remembers returning to their home in South Bend, Ind., with an infant son and an uncertain future. She had worked in retail in the off-seasons to help pay their grocery bills, and Jamie had not yet completed his college degree. "Should we be looking at taking classes, or going to summer school?" she said. "It was a "What do we do with our day?" kind of thing. But I don't think Jamie thought about anything other than baseball. He always believed in himself. Even at St. Joseph's University, the left-handed Moyer did not throw a fastball at 90 miles an hour. He has evidence to prove it. In a zippered compartment of his shaving kit, Moyer keeps a copy of his original Cubs scouting report. Dated March 7, 1984, it notes his tepid fastball - 81 to 84 miles an hour - and his tendency to push the ball. Yet the report also praises Moyer for pitching "with heart, guts and head," and marks him excellent in the categories of work habits and dedication. The Cubs drafted him in the sixth round and signed him for $13,000. Moyer reached the majors at 23, but struggled to compete without throwing hard. Before his 30th birthday, he had pitched for four organizations, and his record was 20 games below .500, at 34-54. He said he felt as if he were pitching for his career from start to start. Moyer did find work after his release from the Cubs, logging a season with the Class AAA Toledo Mud Hens in 1992. He surfaced with Baltimore the next season, and a 1996 trade to the Seattle Mariners, a team that always seemed to lack pitching depth, became his big break. "He learned to master slow-slower-slowest," said Charles Nagy, a top starter for the powerful Cleveland Indians teams of that era. It's frustrating to hitters, and once he figured that out, his career took off. I remember our hitters would swing at it and swing at it and swing at it, and they just couldn't hit it. In a practice before the 2000 American League Championship Series, Moyer was struck by a ground ball and broke his kneecap. He was forced to miss the series - the Mariners lost to the Yankees - and to find a new routine to keep his legs strong. An avid runner, Moyer eventually began arriving six hours early on game days to exercise on an underwater treadmill. "A lot of people wait until their body starts to tell them what to do," said Bryan Price, Moyer's pitching coach for six years in Seattle. He's been aware enough to do the right thing for his body before it started to create problems.