I was going to say Sebastian Janikowski (Seahawks kicker) and Rasheem Green (defensive end on same team) but Seabass was drafted in 2000 in the first round and Green was born in 1997. Close but no cigar.
Martina Navratilova, whose first major win was the Czechosolovakian national championship in 1972 had her last major win in the 2003 Wimbledon mixed doubles. She was playing with partner Leander Paes (born 1973) against Andy Ram (born 1980) and Anastasia Rodinova (born 1982). So that’s a three-fer!
After winning Olympic gold in October of ‘68, George Foreman made his professional boxing debut in June of ‘69 at Madison Square Garden, and quickly went 32-0 before December of ‘71.
Foreman defended the heavyweight championship against a boxer who was born in November of ‘68, which doesn’t quite seem to count; but Foreman then went on to lose that championship in a fight against Shannon “The Cannon” Briggs, who was born in December of ‘71 like I was just saying.
As a Hartford Whaler, he also played with a teammate who had been named for him - Gordie Howe Roberts.
Pete Rose was Rookie of the Year in ‘63, and was still playing baseball in ‘86: even playing in the same game as shortstop Barry Larkin, who was born in April of ‘64.
Larkin’s in the Hall of Fame and Rose ain’t, which is an argument for another time.
That’s just fantastic! Love it.
When I read the thread title, the first name that popped in my head was “Tom Brady”. But his career began in 2000, and it looks like the youngest players on the Patriots are 23.
Yeah he’s in the same boat as Seabass; Brady popped in my head for the same reason. I went with Seabass though because I knew Green was really young (he wasn’t even drinking age yet when drafted last year) and Green had significant playing time on the field this year so he would count. Unfortunately like I said the timing didn’t quite work.
I think Seabass might have played his last pro season but Brady should have a few more years, so who knows, Brady might be an example in 2022…?
When Stan Musial finished his career at age 42, there were more than two dozen MLB players who hadn’t been born when he started. Henry Aaron had an even longer career.
Phil Dawson played his first NFL game in Sept 1999. This year is starting QB was Josh Rosen, born in 1997. There are a few other AZ Cardinals born after Dawson’s first NFL game. AZ is a pretty young team and Dawson started playing young.
Kevin Garnett played his first NBA game in Oct 1995. In his last season in the league he had two teammates (Tyus Jones and Karl-Anthony Towns) that were born after that.
Joe Smith Jr “rose to prominence in 2016 by scoring an upset knockout victory over Andrzej Fonfara, and later becoming the first boxer to score a stoppage victory over former undisputed middleweight world champion Bernard Hopkins, who retired after their fight.” Bernard Hopkins made his professional boxing debut in October of 1988; Smith was born in September of 1989.
The two sports I immediately thought of were golf (mentioned above) and…curling.
For instance, Glenn Howard started his career in 1985 and his son Scott (b. 1990) joined his team in 2015.
Not sure if you count Olympians as professionals or not. Regardless, there have been a half dozen pistol shooters that competed in 7 Olympics or about 28 years, so I’m sure that they competed against kids not yet born when they started.
Brett Harvey was born in 1978 and made his debut in 1996 for North Melbourne Kangaroos.
He retired in 2016 after 21 seasons and 432 games.
6 of Harvey’s 2016 North Melbourne team mates were born in 1996
(Declan Mountford, Mitchell Hibberd, Sam Durdin, Ed Vickers-Willis, Daniel Nielson, Ben McKay)
Jeff Gordon was born in August of 1971 — after, in February of 1971, Richard Petty had won his third Daytona 500.
Dustin Fletcher was born in 1975 and made his debut in 1993 for Essendon.
He retired in 2015 after 23 seasons and 400 games
15 of Essendon’s 2015 senior playing squad (48) were born after he made his debut.
Jaromir Jagr played in the NHL until age 45. Last season he was in Calgary where 14 guys on the roster at some point who were born after his NHL debut in 1990.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished in second in the 2001 Daytona 500, moments after Dale Sr. was killed.
I spent way more time than I’d care to admit trying to find an example of this in Formula 1. The problem is that while there have been a lot of older drivers, they generally got started later in life and in the early days of the sport, so they didn’t have long careers. At the same time, young people weren’t generally getting recruited because it was still a rich man’s game.
After the aero advancements in the 70s, older drivers dropped out and younger drivers came in but the longest careers have only been 19 years and there have only been a few teenage drivers.
The closest I can find is in 2012, the last year of Michael Schumacher’s career when he was 43 years old. Schumacher made his F1 debut at the Belgian GP on 25 Aug 1991, so we’d be looking for anyone born after that date who drove with him in 2012. The closest are 3 drivers born in 1990, Sergio Perez (26 Jan), Charles Pic (15 Feb), and Jean-Eric Vergne (25 Apr), so we’re off by more than a year.
However, if we extend the rules to reserve drivers who participated in “free practice” sessions we pick up 3 drivers born in 1991 – Max Chilton (21 Apr), Esteban Gutierrez (5 Aug), and crucially, Alexander Rossi (25 Sep).
So in 2 races in 2012 (Spain and US), there was a driver (Alexander Rossi) who shared the track with someone who started in F1 before they were born.