Later this season, Scott Rolen, Adrian Beltre and Chipper Jones could all pass the 2000 mark for career games at third base. Actually, barring injury or retirement, it’s a virtual lock. How  unusual is that? Let’s find out.

Here’s the list of games played at 3rd base over a career. To focus on only games at a position, I’m using game data rather than season data, so this list and the ones that follow are for 1918 to the present.

It’s unusual that those three players would all reach this point in their careers at the same time. Why? Mainly because, age-wise, they are all at different points in their careers. Beltre is 33, Rolen 37 and Jones 40. Rolen has never played in the field at any other position and Beltre seldom has, but Jones has over 20% of his career games at other positions. Here are their career lines as of this writing.

Age aside, a lot of similarities between Beltre and Rolen. Rolen takes more walks and has more doubles (hence, the higher OPS+), but otherwise eerily alike. Jones is on another level and appears bound for Cooperstown. The other two may get there too – Rolen by dint of being regarded as the outstanding defensive third baseman of his time, and Beltre by compiling some serious counting numbers which, given his age, he might very well do (which would be particularly impressive considering he has played most of his career in pitcher-friendly parks).

But, back the original question. How unusual is it for contemporaries at a position to reach 2000 games at the same time? Interestingly, this isn’t the first time there have been three active third basemen at this level. Graig Nettles, Mike Schmidt and Buddy Bell were all active and past the 2000 game plateau in 1987 and 1988. So were Gary Gaetti and Wade Boggs from 1997 to 1999, Bell and Schmidt in 1989, and Brooks Robinson and Ron Santo in 1973 and 1974.

What about other positions? Here are the shortstops.

So, we had three together (Vizquel,  Jeter, Renteria) in 2010 and 2011, and almost a fourth last year with Miguel Tejada. There were also three in 1995 and 1996 with Cal Ripken, Alan Trammell and Ozzie Smith. Just Trammell and Smith were also above 2000 from 1991 to 1994, as were Vizquel and Jeter in 2009 and this year, Vizquel and Royce Clayton in 2007, Vizquel and Barry Larkin in 2004, Dave Concepcion and Larry Bowa in 1985, and Bowa and Bert Campaneris in 1983.

The conventional wisdom for second basemen is that they lack the staying power of the left-side infield positions, possibly because they are, presumably, more easily replacable since a rifle arm is not a prerequisite. Let’s see.

Conventional wisdom would appear to be supported. There’s only Lou Whitaker and Willie Randolph in 1992. Randolph was within 50 games of 2000 when Frank White retired after the 1990 season.

At  first base I’m expecting a whole bunch. Let’s see.

Actually, rather less than I would have guessed. Probably because, while we associate first base with aging stars, often those aging stars relocate to first from another position. Anyway, there were four together (McGriff, Galarraga, Palmeiro, Bagwell) in 2004 although, for the record, Galarraga played exactly one game at first base that year. There were three together (Bagwell, Palmeiro, Olerud) in 2005, and also in 2002 and 2003 with Grace, McGriff, and Galarraga. Grace and McGriff were also past the 2000 game milestone in 2001. But, aside from that considerable “flurry” in the first half of the last decade, nothing.

Finally. catcher, where I’m expecting very few, if any.

So, as expected, only 5 players have caught over 2000 games but, surprisingly, all were contemporaries of one or more of the other four. So, we had Fisk and Boone in 1990, Fisk and Carter in 1991 and 1992, and Kendall and Rodriguez in 2010.

Clearly, more teams, a longer schedule, better conditioning and training, and bigger paycheques have all contributed to players playing longer than in the past. Still, it’s interesting to see times when all-time greats at a position are contemporaries.

I’m going to do a bit of digging and see if I can find the games where opposing starters at a position had the most career game experience. And, I’ll also take a look at the outfield. Meanwhile, let me know your thoughts. Any surprises?