It seems like at this point in the human experience there’s nothing a quick Google search can’t answer.

But every once in a while, you have a question nobody has tackled on the Internet.  Usually there’s a good reason for that, as in the case of a question my brother and I had: How many players from the Nintendo 64 game Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. are still playing today?

Well, world, I hereby present to you the answer: 14.  Somehow half of them at one point played for the New York Yankees.  Also, six of them play first base.  Here’s the full list:

-Alex Rodriguez
-Derek Jeter
-Jason Giambi
-David Ortiz
-Todd Helton
-Mark Kotsay
-Paul Konerko
-Raul Ibanez
-Bartolo Colon
-Darren Oliver
-Andy Pettite
-Jamey Wright
-Latroy Hawkins
-Mariano Rivera

I made a spreadsheet to figure this out, and while it took far longer than I care to admit, it does give me an easy way to slice up some data about the roughly 800 Major League players. The “average” player on this list last played in 2003 for either the Expos or the Cardinals.

The team most often the last stop for a player was the Boston Red Sox, which had a whopping 40 compared to the average of 26.  Players were least likely to end their careers playing for the Twins or Marlins, with 14 each.

How did those teams perform?  The seven teams with the most such players finished Nos. 3, 8, 2, 8, 12, 20, and 1 in terms of regular season winning percentage between 1998-2012.  The bottom seven teams finished at Nos. 17, 26, 18, 6, 10, 13 and 22.  Of course there’s no way I would call this a causal link.

Here’s a chart showing those two data sets plotted together.  Across the bottom you see the teams ranked by their cumulative regular season records for those 15 years.  The blue lines show the number of last-stop players each team has had during that time.

(Click for a larger image)

Having a lot or a few of these last-stop players doesn’t seem to make a difference at all when it comes to winning championships, though.  Nine different franchises have won the World Series in this era.  Their ranks among the most last-stop players:  1, 4, 7, 14, 15, 23, 24, 28, 30.

But that’s not to say there’s nothing to learn here.  I see a case for a moderate approach that can lead to the ultimate success.  If you look at the Giants and Cardinals, they’re in the middle in terms of being a last stop, at Nos. 14 and 15, and at the same time rank fourth and sixth in regular season wins.  Most importantly, they have combined to win four World Series titles since 1998.

I think we already knew this, but doing what they do seems like a good path to success.  Now there’s narrow data from a 1998 video game to further make that case (again while ignoring a million other factors).

I’ll keep track of the list going forward, and will note when we get to the last player.  Any bets on which guy it will be?  Should he win a prize or something?

(Shout out to baseball-reference.com for making it super easy to look up each player’s bio in a simple, clean format.)