The biggest matchup OF ALL TIME!!!!
Posted by Jonathan @ RGB Cards | Posted in athletics , long names , the duke
Yes, it's Justin Duchscherer vs. Ryan Rowland-Smith, in what is quite possibly the biggest pitching matchup in Major League history, at least in terms of last names. One is eleven letters long. The other is twelve letters, with a hyphen. That's 23 letters plus a punctuation mark!
This matchup is so huge, even the shiny new scoreboard at Target Field can't fit it all (which, quite frankly, is nothing more than poor planning).
My question to you all is - can you think of anything possibly bigger? Maybe something involving Giants great William VanLandingham?
I think VanLandingham and Isringhausen may have started against each other back in 95 or 96? I wonder!! It's probably on the back of a Topps card somewhere...
OK it took me about 20 seconds to find it : 1997 Topps #131 William VanLandingham has a short blurb on the back : "When William faced Jason Isringhausen on 04/13/1996, it tied a record for most letters in the names of opposing starters. The other 25-letter tandem : Pittsburgh's Fritz Ostermueller vs. Philly's Ken Raffensberger in 1944." Love that card!
Excellent! Cheers for that, Nick. I knew Big Bill had to be involved somehow.
And how about that Ostermueller vs. Raffensberger matchup smack dab in the middle of World War II? It's a wonder they didn't change their names to Smith and Jones, if only for personal safety.