As the dog days of summer approach, a lighter bit of trivia for you. No heavy analysis here, just some idle fun with the Play Index.

Johnny Damon signed on with the Indians earlier this season. Cleveland is Damon’s 7th club, and 4th in 4 seasons. What you might not be aware of is this: Damon leads in games played for all players who have played for exactly 7 clubs.

Another active player close to the top of his list is Omar Vizquel, now with his 6th team. Omar needs another 33 games (possible, but unlikely) to move past Dave Winfield for the most games played for players appearing for exactly 6 franchises.

After the jump, I’ll take a look at other weary travelers.

Here’s the list, showing the top 3 in games played, for each number of franchises played for.

Unsurprisingly, the number of games at the top of each list generally decreases with number of teams played for. The big exception is Rickey Henderson with over 3000 games for 9 franchises (almost 900 games more than Ruben Sierra, next on that list). Henderson’s itinerary included four different stints with the As and two with the Padres.

Octavio Dotel is now the all-time most-traveled player in major league history. Dotel has appeared with 13 teams in 14 seasons, and 6 clubs in just the past 3 years. Interestingly, Dotel has never had more than one stint with the same franchise.

Leading the small group at 12 franchises is Matt Stairs who, like Dotel, did not have multiple stints with the same franchise – not, that is, until finishing up with the Nationals after starting his career with Montreal.

In terms of teammates, Ron Villone with his 12th franchise and Julian Tavares with his 11th, both played on the 2009 Nationals. Also in 2009, Matt Stairs and catcher Paul Bako each played for their 11th franchise with the Phillies. Conversely, here are the top 5 in terms of most career games played by teammates who each played only for one team, at the time when they were last teammates.

• 4704 – Craig Biggio (2554), Jeff Bagwell (2150)
• 4642 – Carl Yastrzemski (3308), Jim Rice (1334)
• 4617 – Lou Whitaker (2390), Alan Trammell (2227)
• 4603 – Frank White (2324), George Brett (2279)
• 4596 – Roberto Clemente (2433), Bill Mazeroski (2163)

At the other end of the spectrum, here are the top 3 for each number of franchises, in terms of fewest career games played. Not unexpectedly, the exclusive preserve of pitchers and backup catchers.

On this list, Dana Eveland (no. 19) and Bruce Chen (no. 27) look poised to move into the top spot when they join their next teams. And, in this day and age of free agency with over half of major league rosters turning over every year, that may not take long to happen.

Following up on the free agency thought, here are the most traveled players up to 1974.

So, even without free agency, there were still players who moved around a lot. Of this group, Bobo Newsom probably packed his suitcase most often as Newsom had multiple stints with several of his 9 teams, including the Senators (5 times), Browns (3), Robins/Dodgers (2), and Athletics (2). Newsom’s  long travels finally paid off in a WS championship at age 40 with the 1947 Yankees (Newsom almost won a WS championship as the ace of the 1940 Tigers staff, bidding for his 3rd CG victory of the series but falling 2-1 in game 7 to Paul Derringer and the Reds).