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The hardest players to reach
Three 1871 White Stockings are the furthest players from the rest of baseball history. George Mikan is the loneliest of the NBA's 75 greats, and this year's rookies are as far from everyone as players who debuted in 1900. The edge of the teammate network in baseball and basketball.
By Austin · October 17, 2026
The center of every sport is the player closest to everyone who ever played. This is the other end: the players furthest from everyone else, counted in teammate links, the way Teammate Chain counts them. We measured how many links every player is from the rest of his sport’s history, on average, in the two sports where our records begin with the league itself.
| Sport | Players | Average distance | Furthest apart | Hardest to reach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseball | 21,482 | 4.4 links | 11 links | Ed Duffy |
| Basketball | 5,099 | 3.8 links | 9 links | Tom Callahan |
Baseball
Baseball's first professional season is the far edge of its history. The 1871 Chicago White Stockings lost their ballpark in the Great Chicago Fire that October, and several of their players never appeared for anyone else. Their small world of teammates is the hardest place in baseball to get to. The 1870s National Association was full of players like them: a season or two, a handful of teammates, and then gone.
The hardest players to reach, Ed Duffy, Tom Foley and Ed Pinkham, are 7.4 links from the average player, against 4.4 for everyone. Among Hall of Famers, the furthest out is Old Hoss Radbourn, at 5.7, with 123 teammates from 1880 to 1891.
The line is a U. The middle of history is the easiest place to reach, because players there link the decades before them to the decades after. The newest players sit near the far edge again, not because they’re isolated but because the players who will connect them to the future haven’t arrived yet. Every season they play, they move a little closer to the middle.
The hardest to reach
| Player | Played | Teammates | Avg. links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ed Duffy | 1871 | 10 | 7.4 |
| Tom Foley | 1871 | 10 | 7.4 |
| Ed Pinkham | 1871 | 10 | 7.4 |
| Frederick Ehlen | 1873 | 18 | 7.1 |
| Bill French | 1873 | 18 | 7.1 |
| Mike Hooper | 1873 | 18 | 7.1 |
The loneliest legends
| Player | Played | Teammates | Avg. links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Hoss Radbourn | 1880 to 1891 | 123 | 5.7 |
| Mickey Welch | 1880 to 1892 | 117 | 5.6 |
| Tim Keefe | 1880 to 1893 | 133 | 5.5 |
| Deacon White | 1871 to 1890 | 183 | 5.5 |
| Cap Anson | 1871 to 1897 | 217 | 5.5 |
The two players furthest apart
Jim Britt and JJ Wetherholt are 11 links apart, as far as any two players in baseball history. The shortest chain between them:
- Jim Britt
- John Bass (with the one before on the 1872 Brooklyn Atlantics)
- Joe Quest (with the one before on the 1871 Cleveland Forest Citys)
- Deacon McGuire (with the one before on the 1885 Detroit Wolverines)
- Charley O'Leary (with the one before on the 1912 Detroit Tigers)
- Rollie Hemsley (with the one before on the 1934 St. Louis Browns)
- Curt Simmons (with the one before on the 1947 Philadelphia Phillies)
- Steve Carlton (with the one before on the 1965 St. Louis Cardinals)
- Bobby Bonilla (with the one before on the 1986 Chicago White Sox)
- Albert Pujols (with the one before on the 2001 St. Louis Cardinals)
- Dustin May (with the one before on the 2021 Los Angeles Dodgers)
- JJ Wetherholt (with the one before on the 2026 St. Louis Cardinals)
Basketball
Basketball's edge is its first season too. The Basketball Association of America, the league that became the NBA, opened in 1946-47 with eleven teams, and four of them (Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Toronto) folded after one year. Most of their players never played another season, so they shared a roster with no one but each other.
The hardest players to reach, Tom Callahan, Armand Cure, Red Dehnert and 5 others, are 6.7 links from the average player, against 3.8 for everyone. Among 75th Anniversary Team members, the furthest out is George Mikan, at 5.2, with 38 teammates from 1948-49 to 1955-56.
The line is a U. The middle of history is the easiest place to reach, because players there link the decades before them to the decades after. The newest players sit near the far edge again, not because they’re isolated but because the players who will connect them to the future haven’t arrived yet. Every season they play, they move a little closer to the middle.
The hardest to reach
| Player | Played | Teammates | Avg. links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tom Callahan | 1946-47 | 16 | 6.7 |
| Armand Cure | 1946-47 | 16 | 6.7 |
| Red Dehnert | 1946-47 | 16 | 6.7 |
| Lou Spicer | 1946-47 | 16 | 6.7 |
| George A. Pastushok | 1946-47 | 16 | 6.7 |
| Bob Shea | 1946-47 | 16 | 6.7 |
The loneliest legends
| Player | Played | Teammates | Avg. links |
|---|---|---|---|
| George Mikan | 1948-49 to 1955-56 | 38 | 5.2 |
| Bill Sharman | 1950-51 to 1960-61 | 44 | 4.6 |
| Paul Arizin | 1950-51 to 1961-62 | 53 | 4.4 |
| Dolph Schayes | 1949-50 to 1963-64 | 62 | 4.3 |
| Bob Pettit | 1954-55 to 1964-65 | 67 | 4.1 |
The two players furthest apart
Ernie Calverley and Paolo Banchero are 9 links apart, as far as any two players in basketball history. The shortest chain between them:
- Ernie Calverley
- Hank Rosenstein (with the one before on the 1946-47 Providence Steamrollers)
- Sidney Hertzberg (with the one before on the 1946-47 New York Knicks)
- Bob Cousy (with the one before on the 1950-51 Boston Celtics)
- John Havlicek (with the one before on the 1962-63 Boston Celtics)
- Cedric Maxwell (with the one before on the 1977-78 Boston Celtics)
- Tim Kempton (with the one before on the 1986-87 Los Angeles Clippers)
- Chauncey Billups (with the one before on the 1997-98 Toronto Raptors)
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (with the one before on the 2013-14 Detroit Pistons)
- Paolo Banchero (with the one before on the 2024-25 Orlando Magic)
Why not football, hockey and soccer?
Our football rosters start in 1970, hockey’s in 1967-68 and soccer’s in 1963-64, long after those leagues began. A player from those first seasons looks remote only because his teammates’ earlier seasons aren’t in the data, so the edge would be where our records start, not where the sport did. Baseball’s rosters go back to 1871 and basketball’s to 1946-47, the first season of each league.
How we counted
Two players are linked if they were on the same team in the same season, as in Teammate Chain. A player’s average distance is the average number of links from him to 2,000 players picked at random from his sport (the same players every time we rebuild the numbers), which comes within a few hundredths of measuring against everyone. The two players furthest apart are exact: we checked every pair that could be further apart than the best found.
About the data
Rosters come from the data behind Teammate Chain: every major-league baseball season since 1871 and the NBA since 1946-47 (not the ABA). Spot a mistake? Let us know.