Battery (baseball)

In baseball, the term battery refers collectively to the pitcher and the catcher, who may also be called batterymen[1] or batterymates of one another.

A baseball team's pitcher and catcher are referred to collectively as its 'battery'.

History

Henry Chadwick gave baseball jargon the term 'battery'.

The use of the word 'battery' in baseball was first coined by Henry Chadwick in the 1860s in reference to the firepower of a team's pitching staff and inspired by the artillery batteries then in use in the American Civil War.[2] Later, the term evolved to indicate the combined effectiveness of pitcher and catcher.[2]

Famous batteries

Frank Duncan Jr (pictured) and his son, Frank Duncan III of the 1941 Kansas City Monarchs are thought to have been the first professional father/son battery.

Some batteries are remarked upon as more than usually productive. Yogi Berra (catcher) and Whitey Ford (pitcher) were World-Series level players who were batterymates with the Yankees since Ford's rookie season in 1950.[3] They started 212 games together.[4][5]

In the early 20th century, some prominent pitchers were known to have picked their favorite catchers. Sportswriter Fred Lieb recalls the batteries of Christy Mathewson / Frank Bowerman beginning in 1899 with the New York Giants, Jack Coombs / Jack Lapp beginning in 1908 with the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young / Lou Criger gaining the greatest attention in 1901 with the Boston Americans (later the Red Sox), and Grover Cleveland Alexander / Bill Killefer beginning in 1911 with the Philadelphia Phillies.[6] Other successful batteries were Ed Walsh / Billy Sullivan beginning in 1904, along with Walter Johnson / Muddy Ruel and Dazzy Vance / Hank DeBerry both starting in 1923.[7][8][9]

Frank Duncan, Jr. and his son, Frank Duncan III, of the 1941 Kansas City Monarchs are thought to have been the first father-son battery in professional baseball history.[10][11]

In 1976, several major league pitchers chose their preferred catchers; a notion that had fallen out of practice for some decades. For instance, catcher Bob Boone of the Philadelphia Phillies, though one of the best catchers of his day, was replaced with Tim McCarver at the request of pitcher Steve Carlton. The Carlton/McCarver combination worked well in 32 out of Carlton's 35 games that season, plus one playoff game. The two had previously been batterymates for four years (1966-69) with the St. Louis Cardinals.[6] Another battery-by-choice was superstitious rookie pitcher Mark Fidrych who was new to the Detroit Tigers in 1976, insisting on rookie catcher Bruce Kimm behind the plate. The Fidrych/Kimm combination started all 29 of Fidrych's 1976 season games. The two continued as a battery through 1977.[6]

On July 13, 2014, pitcher Madison Bumgarner and catcher Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants became MLB's first battery to hit grand slams in the same game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was Bumgarner's second grand slam of the season (April 11).[12]

The battery that appeared in the most games together was Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada, with 598 games.[13]

Red Faber and Ray Schalk had the most total innings together (2553.2).[14]

Lefty Grove (ranked by Bill James as the second-greatest pitcher of all time)[15] and Mickey Cochran (ranked by James as the eighth-greatest catcher)[16] started 224 games together for the 1925-1933 Philadelphia Athletics.[17]

Most Starts

The below table shows batterymates that have appeared in more than 200 starts together since 1914. [17] Last updated August 15, 2020. Bold indicates active teammates.

Games Started	Pitcher	Catcher	Years	Team
324	Mickey Lolich	Bill Freehan	1963-1975	Detroit Tigers
316	Warren Spahn	Del Crandall	1949-1963	Boston and Milwaukee Braves
306	Red Faber	Ray Schalk	1914-1926	Chicago White Sox
283	Don Drysdale	John Roseboro	1957-1967	Los Angeles Dodgers
282	Red Ruffing	Bill Dickey	1930-1946	New York Yankees
279	Adam Wainwright	Yadier Molina	2007-Present	St. Louis Cardinals
270	Steve Rogers	Gary Carter	1975-1984	Montreal Expos
264	Bob Lemon	Jim Hegan	1946-1957	Cleveland Indians
250	Early Wynn	Jim Hegan	1949-1957	Cleveland Indians
248	Tom Glavine	Javy Lopez	1994-2002	Atlanta Braves
247	Lefty Gomez	Bill Dickey	1931-1942	New York Yankees
240	Bob Feller	Jim Hegan	1941-1956	Cleveland Indians
239	Fernando Valenzuela	Mike Scioscia	1981-1990	Los Angeles Dodgers
237	Stan Coveleski	Steve O'Neill	1916-1923	Cleveland Indians
237	Tom Seaver	Jerry Grote	1967-1977	New York Mets
230	Lew Burdette	Del Crandall	1953-1963	Milwaukee Braves
228	Steve Carlton	Tim McCarver	1965-1969, 1972-1979	St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies
224	Lefty Grove	Mickey Cochrane	1925-1933	Philadelphia Athletics
221	Paul Derringer	Ernie Lombardi	1933-1941	Cincinnati Reds
212	Whitey Ford	Yogi Berra	1950-1963	New York Yankees
208	Sandy Koufax	John Roseboro	1957-1966	Los Angeles Dodgers
208	Mike Flanagan	Rick Dempsey	1976-1986	Baltimore Orioles
207	Jack Morris	Lance Parrish	1978-1986	Detroit Tigers
207	Cole Hamels	Carlos Ruiz	2006-2015	Philadelphia Phillies
203	Rube Walberg	Mickey Cochrane	1925-1933	Philadelphia Athletics
203	Billy Pierce	Sherm Lollar	1952-1961	Chicago White Sox
202	Dave Stieb	Ernie Whitt	1980-1989	Toronto Blue Jays

Sibling batteries

The following chart of major league sibling batteries lists pitcher/catcher siblings who played on the same major league team during a single major league season. The pair may or may not have performed as a battery in an actual major league game.[18]

Unique among those listed below are Mort and Walker Cooper, who formed the National League's starting battery at both the 1942 and 1943 MLB All-Star Games, and also appeared as a battery in the 1942, 1943, and 1944 World Series, the only sibling battery to achieve either feat.

There has not been another major league sibling battery since Larry and Norm Sherry of the 1962 Dodgers.

Team(s)	Pitcher	Catcher
1877 Boston Red Caps 1878 Cincinnati Reds 1879 Cincinnati Reds	Will White	Deacon White
1884 Richmond Virginians	Ed Dugan	Bill Dugan
1885 Buffalo Bisons	Pete Wood	Fred Wood
1886 Baltimore Orioles	Dick Conway	Bill Conway
1890 New York Giants (PL) 1891 New York Giants	John Ewing	Buck Ewing
1902 St. Louis Cardinals 1903 St. Louis Cardinals	Mike O'Neill	Jack O'Neill
1912 New York Highlanders	Tommy Thompson	Homer Thompson
1914 Boston Braves	Lefty Tyler	Fred Tyler
1929 Boston Red Sox	Milt Gaston	Alex Gaston
1934 Boston Red Sox 1935 Boston Red Sox 1936 Boston Red Sox 1937 Boston Red Sox 1937 Washington Senators 1938 Washington Senators	Wes Ferrell	Rick Ferrell
1940 St. Louis Cardinals 1941 St. Louis Cardinals 1942 St. Louis Cardinals 1943 St. Louis Cardinals 1944 St. Louis Cardinals 1945 St. Louis Cardinals 1947 New York Giants	Mort Cooper	Walker Cooper
1941 Cincinnati Reds 1944 Cincinnati Reds 1945 Cincinnati Reds 1948 Pittsburgh Pirates	Elmer Riddle	Johnny Riddle
1954 Philadelphia Athletics 1955 Kansas City Athletics 1960 New York Yankees	Bobby Shantz	Billy Shantz
1959 Cincinnati Reds	Jim Bailey	Ed Bailey
1959 Los Angeles Dodgers 1960 Los Angeles Dodgers 1961 Los Angeles Dodgers 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers	Larry Sherry	Norm Sherry

Further reading

• Long term battery combinations / 3,000 or more outs (1893–2017) at SeamHeads.com

See also

• Glossary of baseball

References

1. "Battery (baseball) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
2. Edward Gruver. "Koufax". BaseballLibrary.com. Archived from the original on 2008-07-20. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
3. Barra, Allen (2009). Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee. W. W. Norton. p. 269. ISBN 0393062333.
4. "Yogi Berra's Pitchers". Catcher's Battery Mates. Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
5. "Whitey Ford's Battery Mates". Catching Hall Of Fame Pitchers. Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
6. Grosshandler, Stan. "Pitcher's Choice". Research Journals Archive. Society for American Baseball Research. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
7. • Billy Sullivan Sr. at the SABR Baseball Biography Project, by Trey Strecker, Retrieved November 20, 2011.
8. "Muddy Rule New York Times obituary at thedeadballera.com". thedeadballera.com. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
9. "Hank DeBerry Dead". The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. 11 September 1951. p. 14. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
10. Chris Landers (June 7, 2016). "The little-known but awesome story of professional baseball's first father-son battery". mlb.com. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
11. Ryan Whirty (February 11, 2016). "Seventy five years ago, father-son battery made baseball history with Kansas City Monarchs". kansascity.com. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
12. Pavlovic, Alex. "Giants' battery of Bumgarner, Posey provide charge heading to All-Star break". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
13. Dan Holmes (December 26, 2018). "The greatest batteries in baseball history". Baseball Egg. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
14. Kevin Johnson (April 24, 2018). "Long-Term Battery Combinations". Seamheads.com. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
15. David Schoenfield (December 13, 2012). "Hall of 100: Best pitcher of all time". ESPN. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
16. Bill James (December 14, 2017). "Catchers of the Last 40 years". Bill James Online. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
17. Doug (January 28, 2016). "200 Game Batteries". High Heat Stats. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
18. Larry Amman and L. Robert Davids. "Baseball Brothers". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved January 9, 2020.