Julio Franco, 55, hopes that playing for the Fort Worth Cats of the Independent United League will open doors that will allow him to continue his baseball career.

"I want to stay in baseball and this is a neat opportunity for me to stay close to the game," Franco said.

"If you stay home, people forget about you and you may not get back in. I want to get back in as a coach, hitting coach, bench coach, future manager. This is a great opportunity."

Franco will play for the Cats during the club's first homestand, which starts Tuesday night and is nine games long.

It's also a chance to play professional baseball in five different decades.

"That means a lot, but it doesn't stop there," Franco said.