Longest-Named Batteries (Update)

A few years ago, we delved into the shortest-named batteries of all-time, and included a brief mention of the longest-named pair.

“. . . the battery with the longest combined last name? It appears to be 23. On September 27, 1940, the Chicago Cubs had Ken Raffensberger pitching to Clyde McCullough“

Last night, the Twitterverse came back to this topic, with a potential new leader:

Foltynewicz-Pierzynski has to be the longest battery name combo and definitely worth the most points in Scrabble in MLB.

— Amanda Rykoff (@amandarykoff) May 2, 2016

@thetweethaver @amandarykoff . . . I believe Saltalamacchia to Zimmermann is the record

— Up in the Air (@jasoncollette) May 2, 2016

I’ll tackle the Scrabble aspect of this in a separate post. For now, I’d like to confirm that if we are dealing ONLY with starting pitcher and catcher combos, then Jarrod Saltalamacchia is the catching part of all records, supplying 14 of the new record 24 letters. This season alone, he has caught Tigers pitcher Jordan Zimmermann three times. In 2015, “Salty” caught four different pitchers with 10 letters in their last names.

So, all hail the NEW record-holders, at 24 letters.