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Here's something I didn't know until recently (and have been repeatedly forgetting about since): Baseball Reference has all sorts of random lists at the bottom of their leaders page. Most popular players and teams, most World Series rings, most All-Star games. And: most seasons played.
 Very little about the list would really surprise anyone here, but it's interesting nonetheless. The all-time leaders are Cap Anson and Nolan Ryan, both of whom played 27 years almost exactly 100 years apart. Five of Anson's years came before the National League even existed; the other 22 were all with the Cubbies. It looks like he was a part-timer until age 31, but no, the teams really did just play 50-80 games in most of those years. He's still 46th on the all-time games played list, despite topping out at 146 in a season. Cap's career started at age 19, during Grant's presidency, smack in the middle of the Reconstruction Era. It ended at age 45 (kind of abruptly--he was still putting up a .370-plus OBP). Bill McKinley was president, Henry Ford had built his first gas-powered moving carriage, and legendary radio personality Walter Winchell was born.
Great American novelist Stephen Crane was born in 1871, Anson's first year (actually, Crane was born after that first season had ended). By Anson's retirement in 1897, Crane had written The Red Badge of Courage and a number of other acclaimed novels and short stories. He passed away in the middle of 1900, not yet 29. Crane lived an entire, celebrated life in about 18 months longer than Anson's baseball career.
Ryan's career, of course, is familiar to just about everybody. He premiered in 1966, also 19, but appeared in only two games, and none in '67. Starting in his first real year of 1968, then, his career stretched from "Hey, Jude" to "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)." It was time for him to leave by then, at age 46, but he went 12-6 and threw his 7th no-hitter at age 44 and in that season had the best ERA+, second-best ERA, and most strikeouts anyone that age or older has ever had.
Deacon McGuire's 26 seasons (for eleven franchises) probably shouldn't count. He played semi-regularly from age 20 to age 42 (1884 to 1906), but then played seven games in 1907, two in 1908, one in 1910 and one in 1912. He did, however, hold the all-time record for games caught until 1925.
Charlie Hough, one of five to play in 25 seasons, has one of the most interesting pitching careers of all time. He didn't get a Major League decision until his fourth "season" (he'd pitched 24 innings in the first three combined). He didn't start his first game until his eighth season, and had a total of 23 starts entering his age-34 season. It's good to be the knuckleballer, though; he became a full-time starter for the first time in that season, and pitched long enough and durably enough to end up with 440 career starts, two more than Whitey Ford.
Hough's fellow knuckler Phil Niekro, one of nine to play in 24 seasons, didn't even play in the Major Leagues until age 25, didn't get his second Major League start until age 28, and still made 716 of them, fifth all time. Not counting one novelty game by Satchel Paige, he's one of only five to pitch at age 48 or older, and the only one to make a start in that season (he made 26 of them).
Finally, Carlton Fisk and Rick Dempsey. It's a hell of a thing for a catcher to last more than 20 years. Fisk, of course, was a very good hitter, very durable, a Hall of Famer. Dempsey didn't become a starting catcher until age 28, despite having been in the league (for at least some time each year, that is) since age 19. He remained a starter until 36, then hung on as a backup until age 42. He never led the league in anything, made an All-Star team or won any regular-season awards. He did win a World Series MVP in 1983, with a 5-for-13, all five for extra bases (four doubles and a homer).
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