Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Sitting in the Atlanta Braves clubhouse last season, first baseman Adam LaRoche was enjoying a candy bar when it was yanked out of his hands.

``You need to go get some tuna or egg whites,'' scolded then-teammate Julio Franco as he threw the treat into the garbage.

Franco, now a 48-year-old pinch hitter with the New York Mets, forsakes all sweets and unhealthy food. He's convinced that his all-natural diet, which includes eating as many as 20 egg whites for breakfast, is helping him toward his goal of being the oldest player ever to appear in Major League Baseball's World Series.

``They say you are what you eat, so you don't want to eat garbage,'' Franco says, confirming the candy incident recounted by LaRoche. ``I stay close to nature. Anything that nature produces, I eat. If nature didn't produce it, to me, it's not worth it.''

Franco says he wants to play until he is 50. Meantime, he's trying to help the Mets, who lead the Los Angeles Dodgers two games to none in their best-of-five division playoff series. If the Mets beat the Dodgers and win the National League Championship Series against either the San Diego Padres or St. Louis Cardinals, Franco may surpass Jack Quinn in the record books. Quinn pitched for the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1930 World Series at age 47.

``I'm just overwhelmed by it all,'' Franco says. ``It's hard to explain.''

How Old?

Franco is so old that LaRoche's father, Dave, was pitching for the New York Yankees when Franco played his first game on April 23, 1982, with the Philadelphia Phillies. Hall of Famers Willie Stargell, Johnny Bench and Carl Yastrzemski were still playing. Neither Alaska nor Hawaii were states when he was born in 1958 in the Dominican Republic.

``The guy is just really old,'' Mets pitcher Tom Glavine, 40, says with a laugh. ``But he takes tremendous care of himself. Whenever I see him, he's always eating something healthy.''

When the National Football League's Atlanta Falcons signed 46-year-old Morten Andersen last month, making him the oldest player in the league, the kicker joked that dust came out of his veins when the team drew blood during a physical examination.

If Franco was given a blood test, the vial might be filled with pureed vegetables. Franco, who lifts weights as many as six times a week, drinks homemade concoctions of broccoli, onions, cauliflower and beets.

``Some of the crap he eats is disgusting,'' LaRoche, 26, says.

Franco says it's just a matter of taste.

``If you buy an expensive wine, some people don't like it,'' he says. ``If you buy a $10 bottle of wine, some people love it.''

5,000 Calories

Not that Franco, who eats as many as six meals a day as part of a 5,000-calorie-a-day diet, would buy wine. He says he gave up alcohol and caffeine about 15 years ago because they were causing chest pains. His father died of complications from high blood pressure in his late 50s.

Franco is a walking baseball record book. He is the oldest player to hit a home run, a grand slam, a pinch-hit homer and more than one homer in a game. He's also the oldest to steal two bases in a game. Announcer Milo Hamilton calls him Methuselah, the Biblical figure who is said to have lived to be 969 years old.

Paige's Record

Even if Franco sets the record as the oldest player to appear in the World Series, he has a way to go before setting the record for playing in the major leagues. Satchel Paige played when he was 59 years old.

Franco has appeared in 95 games this season, hitting .273 with two home runs, 26 runs batted in and six stolen bases. His contract with the Mets ends after next season. General Manager Omar Minaya, who says he doesn't doubt that Franco will be a major-leaguer until he's 50, wouldn't comment on signing him for another year.

Franco may not have always had a healthy lifestyle.

``He was very talented and he knew it,'' says Pat Corrales, who managed Franco in Philadelphia and with the Cleveland Indians. ``He was cocky and arrogant.''

Franco led the American League with a .341 batting average in 1991 and was named Most Valuable Player of the 1990 All-Star Game.

While with Cleveland in 1985, Franco didn't show up for a game at Yankee Stadium. He didn't alert the team and later said he was sick and decided to sleep at a friend's house, which didn't have a telephone.

Soybean Cake

``He was just a young man who liked pretty girls and liked to have a beer every now and then,'' says Corrales, who was the Braves' bench coach the past eight seasons. ``He has settled down and grown to be quite a man. He deserves everything he gets now because he has earned it.''

One thing Franco may not get is a cake on his 50th birthday.

``He won't eat it,'' says Braves General Manager John Schuerholz. ``Not unless it's made of soybeans.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 6, 2006 00:13 EDT