Aging Well

Minnesota designated hitter Paul Molitor, who turns 41 on Friday, violates a key rule in baseball: He gets better as he gets older. A look at his career:

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YEARS AGE AVG. HR RBIs 1978-81 21-24 .296 26 163 1982-86 25-29 .287 53 227 1987-91 30-34 .319 69 311 1992-96 35-39 .322 72 448

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Most hits after age 40 (since 1901):

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PLAYER HITS HITS EACH YEAR Pete Rose 699 (140, 172, 121, 107, 107, 52) Sam Rice 551 (207, 128, 93, 25, 98) Honus Wagner 479 (139, 155, 124, 61) Carl Yastrzemski 437 (27, 100, 83, 126, 101) Dave Winfield 413 (169, 148, 74, 22) Stan Musial 336 (107, 143, 86) Ty Cobb 289 (175, 114) Hank Aaron 262 (91, 109, 62) Nap Lajoie 260 (18, 137, 105) Tony Perez 249 (44, 61, 33, 60, 51) Brian Downing 202 (113, 89) Willie Mays 199 (94, 61, 44) Paul Molitor 172 (51, 121)

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Researched by HOUSTON MITCHELL / Los Angeles Times