Julio Franco became the oldest player to hit a home run last Thursday, connecting in the Mets 7-2 victory over the Padres. He nabs the record from pitcher Jack Quinn who homered once in 34 at-bats at the age of 46. Quinn had held the record since 1930—boy, must he be ticked off at Franco. By the way, Franco hit 9 last year at age 46, but was still edged out by Quinn.

Quinn hit only eight homers in 1349 at-bats. His second-to-last homer came eight years earlier when he was 38. He recorded 472 at-bats in those intervening eight seasons, and never recorded fewer than 46, and yet he hit his last in 34 at-bats. He collected just 35 at-bats in his final three seasons, before retiring at age 49.

Franco plans to play until age 50, and will be 49 when his current contract expires (if he doesn't first). If Franco can last that long, he'll be just the sixth man to do it, and given that none of them played more than 3 games in any season past 50, he can very easily collect the most games after turning 50.

Here are all the players to last in the majors to age 47, oldest to youngest:

Note that all of the previous players have amassed just 261 at-bats after turning 47. Franco could equal that before his current contract is done, and of course, he's already out-homered the entire group.

There are 224 player seasons in which the given player was over 40 and hit at least one home run, four of which come this season (Franco, Craig Biggio, Steve Finley, and, finally, Barry Bonds). Altogether those players have collected 1289 taters in 52202 at-bats or a dinger in 2.47% of those player at-bats. Below are all the players to homer past age 44:

Now, here are the most per season after age 40:

And finally, here are the players with the highest percentage of home runs in their at-bats:

As for the most home runs past age 40, Franco, largely a role player late in his career, barely cracks the list of leaders:

And he comes nowhere near the leaders in home runs per at-bat post-40:

Franco does, however, own the post-45 homer list:

Given the number of post-40 players to homer this year, you won't be surprised to find that the 2000s, or whatever we call the current decade, project to the most home runs after turning forty in baseball history. However, Franco and his aged compatriots will have to double their efforts to top the Fifties homers per at-bats after turning forty: