My father is 52 years old. He is one of the most fit people in their fifties I have ever met. He works out six days a week and eats relatively healthily.
Julio Franco blows my dad out of the water.
Julio Franco is 56 years old, and he isn’t quite ready to give up playing the game he loves – baseball. He has signed up to be a player-manager for the Ishikawa Million Stars in Japan.
“The Baseball Challenge League is an independent professional baseball league in the north central region of Japan,” according to cbssports.com. “The League consists of six teams. The League was founded in 2006 and began playing in the 2007 season.”
Did I mention he is 56? 
Last year, Franco (55) attempted to revive his career by playing with the Fort Worth Cats of the United League as a player/manager. He went 6-for-27 (.222) in seven games.
In 1982, Franco made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Phillies at the age of 23. He was in minor league baseball in the late 1970’s, which means he has now played baseball for five straight decades.
Franco’s last major league appearance came in 2007 when he was a pinch-hitter with the Atlanta Braves. At the time, he was the oldest player in the league at 49.
The high points of his career were the three-consecutive All-Star Game appearances he made from 1989-1991, and he won the American League batting title in 1991 with a batting average of .341.
Twenty Four years after his prime, Franco still laces up his cleats and trains with the professionals. He will be batting against pitchers who are less than half his age. 
Picture this: A freshly drafted 18 year old kid warming up with a 56 year old veteran. Franco would be playing catch with someone who wasn’t even born when he won his batting title in 1991.
What most impresses  me about this feat is how Franco continues to love the game. Nowadays with all the money that circulates in professional sports, there is always doubt regarding why the athletes are playing the game. Do they really love it, or are they doing it for the paycheck?
“The team has not decided how often Franco will bat or which position he will play,” a spokesman for the Million Stars said to the Wall Street Journal. “The league has an upper limit for salary paid to managers, meaning the team’s deal with Franco is less than ¥7.2 million ($60,600).”
Julio Franco loves the game of baseball as much as a father could love a son. As much as Father Time continues to play the antagonist to Franco, he keeps fighting back, refusing to let age hinder his passion.
It is refreshing in the world of professional sports to see an “old man” play a game meant for the young.
There is always a time in a baseball player’s life where he finally realizes the game has passed them by. For some it’s 18; for others it’s later on. But eventually, at some point, every player will have to hang up his jersey. 
Try telling that to Julio Franco.