The shortest path from Lip Pike to Barry Bonds?

[toomanyhatz]

Tracing baseball's all-time HR record and all those who've held it for more than a decade, what is the least number of players that you can name that played with two successive long-time holders? In other words, players who were active at the same time as:

Lip Pike and Roger Connor, then
Roger Connor and Babe Ruth, then
Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, then
Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds.

I've checked, there is at least one in each case, though in some cases there might be more than one.

Can anyone name all four without looking it up?

[Spindlebrook]

For Hank Aaron to Barry Bonds, both Tommy John and Steve Carlton would qualify.

[Nimrod]

For Hank Aaron to Barry Bonds, both Tommy John and Steve Carlton would qualify.

Also,Darrell Evans.

[chicagowhitesox1173]

Mike Schmidt would have to be one right?

[toomanyhatz]

Yep, going from Aaron to Bonds (a span of just over ten years) is the easy part. Nolan Ryan's the other obvious one, but there must be ten more players easily. The other three spans are a little tougher to fill, there might be only one in each case. I'm interested to see if anyone comes up with one I didn't know about.

The toughest one is Ruth to Aaron, but there is one player for sure that it applies to. Big hint- I'm pretty sure he never played in the same regular season game as Aaron, as they were in different leagues. But they were both active MLB players at the same time. He probably did play in the same game as Ruth, however. Another hint- he was a teenager at the time.

EDIT- actually, I just saw that the span from Lip Pike to Roger Connor is even shorter. Oh well, there's one obvious one. But there must be dozens at least who played with both of them. Let's concentrate on the remaining two:

Who was active in MLB at the same time as both Roger Connor and Babe Ruth?
Who was active in MLB at the same time as both Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron?

[dgarza]

Who was active in MLB at the same time as both Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron?

I'm thinking someone like Doc Cramer, Appling, or Bobo Newsom, but I don't think those guys played quite to Aaron's day, even though they played forever.

[toomanyhatz]

Cramer and Appling not that close, though they played for a while. Newsom's super close- ended in 1953 and Aaron started in '54.

Johnny Mize is the other one that just misses- at both ends.

[ian2813]

The toughest one is Ruth to Aaron, but there is one player for sure that it applies to. Big hint- I'm pretty sure he never played in the same regular season game as Aaron, as they were in different leagues. But they were both active MLB players at the same time. He probably did play in the same game as Ruth, however. Another hint- he was a teenager at the time.

Are you thinking of Phil Cavarretta?

[Ben Grimm]

Who was active in MLB at the same time as both Roger Connor and Babe Ruth?

Would Lajoie qualify here?

[Brooklyn]

Who was active in MLB at the same time as both Roger Connor and Babe Ruth?

Honus Wagner seems like he'd fit

[toomanyhatz]

Are you thinking of Phil Cavarretta?

Cavaretta is correct. The odd thing about him- to my knowledge the only player active at the same time as Ruth and Aaron- is that he played in the NL his first year, and Ruth was in the AL, but in his second year, he likely faced Ruth in a game as Ruth was playing for the Braves. Late in his career he played across town with the White Sox, and Aaron debuted with the Braves, who wouldn't have played the Sox in the regular season.

[toomanyhatz]

Honus Wagner seems like he'd fit

Wagner and Lajoie are both correct, though Bobby Wallace is the one I was thinking of. Hughie Jennings, who made a token appearance as a player when he managed the Tigers in 1918, is another one, though he wasn't really an active player per se.

So we have:

Lip Pike played with Cap Anson (the best example as he parallels Pike pretty closely and stretched into a fair amount of Connor's career as well) who played with Roger Connor

Roger Connor played with Bobby Wallace who played with Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth played with Phil Cavaretta who played with Hank Aaron

Hank Aaron played with Nolan Ryan (first one I thought of, though many apply) who played with Barry Bonds.

And there we have it. Thanks, all!