Is it better to have a team full of experienced, veterans? Or would you rather your team be chock full of promising rookies? It's a tough question to answer, and one that doesn't even necessarily have an answer. Let's take a look at the oldest and youngest teams in the leauge to see if it will shed some like on the age old question.
| Team | Avg Age | ||
| 1. Blues | 34.16 | ||
| 2. Red Skulls | 34.04 | ||
| 3. Remparts | 33.48 | ||
| 4. Argonauts | 32.45 | ||
| 5. Rapids | 32.28 | ||
| 6. Mustangs | 32.08 | ||
| 7. Islanders | 32.00 | ||
| 8. Pirates | 32.00 | ||
| 9. Okanagans | 31.88 | ||
| 10. Kokanee | 31.82 | ||
| 11. Storm | 31.67 | ||
| 12. Roughnecks | 31.28 | ||
| 13. Orcas | 30.40 | ||
| 14. Sharks | 30.40 | ||
| 15. Battery | 30.39 | ||
| 16. Crusaders | 30.32 | ||
| 17. Red Dogs | 30.24 | ||
| 18. Bandits | 30.24 | ||
| 19. Pride | 30.20 | ||
| 20. Typhoon | 30.00 | ||
| 21. Dragons | 29.84 | ||
| 22. Yellow Jackets | 29.72 | ||
| 23. Polar Bears | 29.62 | ||
| 24. Mud Cats | 29.56 | ||
| 25. Stampeders | 28.96 | ||
| 26. Milk Men | 28.80 | ||
| 27. Bulldogs | 28.32 | ||
| 28. Bluenotes | 28.24 |
Oldest Team: Charlottetown Blues
Contrary to rumors floating around the shuffleboard circuit, the Blues did not move their Fort Lauderdale spring training camp down I-95 to Century Village and hire Jack LaLanne as strength and conditioning coach. Still, they are the oldest team in baseball, a 162-episode version of thirtysomething.
With an average age of 34, Charlottetown officially gets the nod as the "Grand Daddies of the Senior Circuit".
Ellie Avery, 37 realizes his days of leading the team may be numbered. "I'm starting to get to that age where your body starts failing you," Avery says as he rubs mineral ice into his throwing arm. "It's just a fact of life, I guess." At 37, Ramon Stark isn't far behind.
Veteran relief pitcher Kenneth Patuto sees the this era in Blues' history coming to an end. "Guys like me, Avery and Nixey Mrozinski aren't going to be here forever, that's no secret. How the team reacts to that remains to be seen."It's never pretty to watch a player get old. Watching a whole team do it is like watching a train wreck. One thing's for sure: the future is now for the Blues.
Youngest Team: Yellowknife Bluenotes
Whether it's the perils of playing in a small market or for an owner too cheap to want to pay the price to compete, the Bluenotes have put together a roster that seems to feature more rookies than veterans. The result is a collection of players long on enthusiasm and painfully short on experience including many who made the quantum leap from Double A ball right to the major leagues.
At an average age of 28, Yellowknife are certainly very green. "There are some games we feel like we belong," says twenty three year-old left fielder Sarnat Dalton. "There are other games we feel like we're a little kid getting beat around out there." Trent Schryser, 23, nods along, smiling from ear to ear.
"A lot of people see us as the future of the franchise," Prescott Burns, 23 says. "That may be so, but you won't get me, Sarnat, Trent or Todd Cook up here to say it. We know we've got a long way to go."
But as starting pitcher Art Danforth, a nineteen-year veteran observed, "You know guys are younger and they do things a little different. Different isn't always bad. It's just different."