Bob McManaman

azcentral sports

Julio Franco can't be destroyed with conventional weapons. He's the Keith Richards of his sport, the Count Dracula of baseball, and Father Time just signed a contract to be a player-manager of a semi-pro team in Japan.

At 56-years old!

If anybody can do it, though, it's this guy, who once said he eats 20 egg whites a day for breakfast.

Franco has been defying age for decades now. After all, he's played professionally in five of them, starting in the minor leagues way back in 1978 at age 19.

He was 48, still wet behind the ears for him, when he ripped a two-run shot off the Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson into the Chase Field pool to help give the Mets a 5-3 victory.

Yes, that made him the oldest player in history to homer in a major league game. Of course, Franco is also the oldest player to ever hit a grand slam. He's also the oldest player to ever record a multi-homer game. And yes, he's the oldest player to ever club a pinch-hit home run, too.

When he did it the last time, in the eighth inning of a Mets' 7-2 win over the Padres at San Diego, it was just the 25th pinch-hit homer slugged by a player 45 years or older.

Of those 25 homers, 20 belong to Franco.

And now Franco, who turns 57 in August, is off to Japan upon agreeing to play for and manage the Ishikawa Million Stars, a member of Japan's independent Baseball Challenge League.

He ought to bring 56-year-old Rickey Henderson over to be his bench coach – and base-stealing pinch runner off the bench. If Franco can do it, Rickey certainly still can.

But seriously, you have to admire Franco's determination and his obvious love for the game of baseball. This past year, the former three-time All-Star and American League batting champion played for the Fort Worth Cats of the independent United League.

He's been everywhere, really. Franco played for eight different major league teams and he also previously played professionally in Japan, South Korea and Mexico.

In 2008 while playing for a Mexican league team, the Quintana Roo Tigers, Franco announced his "retirement."

"It was the hardest decision in my life," he said at the time in an interview to the Mexican sports daily, Record. "I always said I would be the first one to know the exact moment. I think the numbers speak for themselves, the production speaks and this is the right moment.

"I understand that my time has passed and the great men and athletes know when to say, 'enough.' "

Clearly, Julio Franco can't get "enough." And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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