The ageless wonder known as Julio Franco, who played an exhibition with the Fort Worth Cats last season and played his final big-league game in 2007, will give it a go now in Japan.
At age 56, Franco will be a player/manager for the Ishikawa Million Stars of Japan's Independent Baseball Challenge League, which features just eight teams and has a female knuckleball pitcher, so this won't be the first odd bit the league has ever seen.
Franco's MLB career spanned 25 season and he finished his career with a .298 career batting average, 173 homers and 1,194 RBIs. He won the batting title with the Texas Rangers back in 1991.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a spokesman for the Million Stars said the team hasn’t decided how often Franco will bat or which position he will play. The league has an upper limit for salary paid to managers, meaning the team’s deal with Franco is less than ¥7.2 million ($60,600).
