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MLB: The history of baseball in seven degrees of separation

By Bill Felber

CHICAGO, IL - 1892: Adrian "Cap" Anson and his Chicago Colts baseball team pose for a portrait in Chicago, Illinois in 1892. The Hall of Fame players on the team are Cap Anson, seated center, and Clark Griffith, on the floor second from right. (Photo Reproduction by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - 1892: Adrian "Cap" Anson and his Chicago Colts baseball team pose for a portrait in Chicago, Illinois in 1892. The Hall of Fame players on the team are Cap Anson, seated center, and Clark Griffith, on the floor second from right. (Photo Reproduction by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images) /
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In only seven degrees of separation it’s possible to encompass 143 seasons of MLB history. Start with C.C. Sabathia and get to Cap Anson.

There was a very interesting article published today at mlb.com examining how far back in baseball history it was possible to reach linking players who actually hit or pitched against one another.

In the piece “How far back in HR history can we go in six steps”, Michael Clair applied the “six degrees of separation” principle to reach from Giancarlo Stanton of the present-day New York Yankees all the way back to Bob Feller of the 1937 Cleveland Indians.

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His common bond: one of the players either had to have homered off of, or given up a home run to, the other.

It’s an interesting premise, but we can do better. With only a slight liberalization of the rules, we can encompass the entire 143-year history of the major leagues by adding only one more degree of separation.

The slight liberalization of the rules is as follows: Rather than one of the players having homered off or allowed a home run to the other, we will only require that the two players have actually played with or against one another in the same major league game.

We’re also taking one quick liberality with the definition of an “active” major leaguer. Since no games have been played yet in 2020, we are starting with players who were active in 2019, specifically C.C. Sabathia. Yes, we know Sabathia announced his retirement at season’s end. Yes, that will be a problem for this premise as soon as games resume. No, that hasn’t happened yet.

Our journey through baseball’s time capsule will touch on some of the game’s immortals, including five Hall of Famers. The other three fall short of that designation — in one case for now, anyway — but they were also first-rate players.

With that as an explainer, here are seven degrees of separation through baseball history

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