Australian Grant Balfour has played 13 seasons in MLB. Picture: Jono Searle. Source: News Corp Australia

Mind you, we do have to go back more than 100 years to find him.

Balfour, a Sydneysider who is about to enter his second year of a $12 million contract with MLB team Tampa Bay, has clocked up 11 seasons with the Rays and three other clubs.

Graeme Lloyd, who pitched for the Yankees in a World Series, played 10 MLB seasons. Queensland great David Nilsson, who played in an MLB All-Star game, as Balfour has done, could go no further than eight.

His career longevity is, Balfour says, his greatest achievement in the game.

Grant Balfour #50 of the Tampa Bay Rays. Source: Getty Images

“I knew some of the guys had lengthy careers. Some people had made me aware of it (his has been longer),’’ Balfour said in Brisbane on the fourth leg of his promotional tour of Australia.

Website baseball-reference.com credits Sydney-born Joe Quinn with having played 17 seasons from 1884-1901.

One hundred years after Quinn played his last game, Balfour, now 36, made his debut as an MLB pitcher for Minnesota in 2001.

“Seventeen? Did he play 17 seasons in the big leagues?,’’ he said in a tone combining surprise and suspicion.

“I’ve heard of him but 17 years … that’s even more impressive.

“I’ve got 13 seasons, but 11 years of service time. You look at 17 seasons, does it mean 17 seasons of service time? You have to have 172 days for it to count as a full season. Eleven is what MLB counts towards pension plans.

Australian Grant Balfour has played 13 seasons in MLB. Picture: Jono Searle. Source: News Corp Australia

“I had tommyjohn (elbow) surgery and I had shoulder surgery all in 2005 and I came back in 2006 and was pitching in the minor leagues, on a big league contract trying to get back to the big league clubs.

“I was very happy I came back. I missed two seasons in the big leagues and went to the Milwaukee Brewers and pitched with them in the big league (in 2007).’’

The modern era of baseball is considered to be from 1901 by MLB, as it was the first season with both of the existing Major Leagues in operation and in that time four Australians have played in postseason games, finals in the Australian vernacular.

Balfour has played in more post-season games, 17, than any of them.

In 2013, Balfour became the second Australian to play in an MLB All-Star game.

Speaking to Bandits fans and sponsors on Thursday night, he compared his All-Star experience to “your wedding day _ it’s gone before you know it’’.

Grant Balfour earns more money than any NRL or AFL player - but the Aussie pitcher is far from a household name.

Asked to nominate the next Australian MLB player, the 36-year-old said only that “there are a handful of guys knocking on the door’’.

“We have had a few guys who have been in the Major Leagues and they have had that achievement and some of them are currently playing,’’ he said.

“There are some younger guys on their way up and I wish I knew them more personally. I’m the old guy now.’’

Nilsson, who played alongside a 19-year-old Balfour in a winning Australian team soon after his MLB retirement, tried to set him straight when the Tampa pitcher said he wished he could find a way to play for his national team more.

“Every day you are pitching in the big leagues, you are representing again,’’ Nilsson assured Balfour with Bandits fans listening in.