Seven Starts for Seven Brothers

Mike of Mike’s Baseball Rants has been on a quest ever since the brothers Benes–Cardinal Andy and Cub Alan–faced each other as starting pitchers last week. According to several news reports, the Benes boys are the seventh pair in major league history to square off, with the most recent duo being Ramon and Pedro Martinez in 1996. None of the reports listed the other five pairs of pitching brothers, and so Mike made an incomplete list of possibilities where two brothers were in the same league but not on the same team:

- Forsch (1974-‘80)

- Perry (1972-‘73, ’75)

- Niekro (1967-‘69, ’74-‘83, ’86-’87)

- Dean (1938-’40)

- Coveleski (1916-’18)

- Stottlemyre (1990)

- Maddux (’93-’94, ’96-’97)

- Leiter (’86-’92)

I was able to offer one addition to Mike’s list, recalling that back in 1979, the brothers Underwood–Tiger Pat and Blue Jay Tom–faced off against each other. Both pitched well, but Pat pitched a three-hitter and won 1-0, thanks to a Jerry Manuel solo HR in the 8th inning off of Tom. Thank you, Retrosheet.

I also confirmed that Phil and Joe Niekro, who combined for 546 wins in the big leagues, had faced off several times, with Joe holding a career 5-4 edge on Phil. On May 29, 1976, Joe connected for his only big-league homer off of Phil. Oh, brother…

A reader of Mike’s page confirmed that the Madduxes faced each other as rookies in 1986, bringing our list to 5. Initial reports that the Leiter brothers have faced each other are thus far unsubstantiated. I did find that Mel Stottlemyre Jr, who started only 2 games in the big leagues for the Kansas City Royals in 1990, faced the Tornoto Blue Jays in one of those games, but brother Todd wasn’t on the mound that day. Close, but no cigar.

Even closer without the cigar were the brothers Coveleski (Harry and Hall of Famer Stan), who missed each other by a day twice and by two days once in 1916. Further digging in Retrosheet crossed off the Forsches (Bob and Ken), the Deans (Dizzy and Daffy) and the Perezes (Pascual, Melido, and Carlos). But I did find that the Perrys (Jim and Gaylord) met: on July 3, 1973, Jim and the Tigers faced Gaylord and the Indians. Alas, no box score of the game is available via Retrosheet.

Still, we’re up to 6. Does anybody know (and have confirmation of) the seventh duo? Bloggers are standing by.