Most common pitcher/batter combos?
 

I am not sure this stat is even available, but who are some likely candidates as the answer to the question, which hitter faced which pitcher the most times? Some possibilities I can think of are Cobb/Johnson, Collins/Johnson, Wagner/Mathewson, Musial/Spahn and Rose/Niekro. Others?

I remember reading on Walter Johnson's wiki page about this and was correct. Not sure where the data came from, but seems right.


"Johnson's rookie season was Cobb's third, and Johnson retired one year before Cobb. Cobb faced Johnson at bat more times in their overlapping careers than any other hitter-pitcher combination in major league history."

Just for the record on your guesses, Spahn faced Musial 327 times, that was the first one I thought of as I was reading the question. Niekro and Rose 266 times.

I couldn't think of anyone who closely overlapped with Yaz or Aaron on the pitching side or Young or Alexander on the batting side. Ted Williams and Wynn maybe? Or maybe Yaz and Jim Palmer even though he came up a few years later?

I can see your reasoning behind the combos. I'd right away have to eliminate the era(s) when there were more teams, regardless of how many games were played in a single season in any era. As much as I do like that Musial/Spahn combo I'd have to go pre war -- shorter rotations too.

What about Bob Gibson and Ernie Banks

I would guess Johnson/Cobb. Their careers overlapped almost perfectly and, on average, there were less teams in the league than for say Musial/Spahn, who I believe have the modern record.

According to: "Ty Cobb vs. Walter Johnson," Steven H. Heath, Baseball quarterly Review, Fall 1992, Cobb faced Johnson 368 times in 103 games. He had 119 hits in 322 official at bats for a .373 average, including 1 home run, 7 triples, and 19 doubles. Johnson hit Cobb with a pitch just once, in 1910.

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Yeh, way to go TY!!!!!

Joe

Cobb relates in his autobiography how he "solved" Johnson after seeing how upset Johnson became after hitting the Tigers' Ossie Vitt in the head in a game in 1915. Who but Cobb would actually crowd and lean in over the plate against the great fastball pitcher? But that's what he did, and rather than hit him or brush him back, the mild-mannered Johnson gave Cobb a steady diet of pitches on the outside, which Cobb feasted on. From 1907 through 1914, Cobb hit better than .222 in only one season against Johnson, and was just 3 for 26 in the years 1913-14. But from 1915 through 1926, Cobb averaged .435, with his worst year at .276.

That is pretty amazing...

This is discussed at length in Al Stump's biography Cobb. It is a great read and I highly recommend it. As a younger fan, 26, I really didn't know much about him beforehand (other than that he was a little crazy and disliked).

Actually Musial had 382 plate appearances against Spahn, if you count walks and HBPs.

http://www.baseball-fever.com/archiv...p/t-98968.html

It is surprising with all the esoteric stats available that there does not seem to be a ready source for this one.