Recently, I was thinking about the 1970s Dodgers infield of Davey Lopes, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey and Bill Russell. They famously played together longer than any other infield foursome (833 games). It got me wondering what trio of outfielders started the most games together, both in specific outfield slots and as a general trio regardless of absolute position.
With assistance from the Retrosheet gamelogs, I was able to determine the following top ten trios through 2015 …
Most games started by the same threesome in the same outfield alignment:
| LF | CF | RF | GAMES |
| Ken Williams | Baby Doll Jacobson | Jack Tobin | 556 |
| George Bell | Lloyd Moseby | Jesse Barfield | 552 |
| Bob Skinner | Bill Virdon | Roberto Clemente | 542 |
| Al Simmons | Mule Haas | Bing Miller | 465 |
| Bobby Veach | Ty Cobb | Harry Heilmann | 418 |
| Charlie Keller | Joe DiMaggio | Tommy Henrich | 394 |
| Ted Williams | Jim Piersall | Jackie Jensen | 390 |
| Carlos Lee | Michael Bourn | Hunter Pence | 387 |
| Rickey Henderson | Dwayne Murphy | Tony Armas | 386 |
| Woody Jensen | Lloyd Waner | Paul Waner | 386 |
Most games started by the same threesome, regardless of specific position in the outfield:
| OF1 | OF2 | OF3 | GAMES |
| Baby Doll Jacobson | Jack Tobin | Ken Williams | 626 |
| George Bell | Jesse Barfield | Lloyd Moseby | 552 |
| Bill Virdon | Bob Skinner | Roberto Clemente | 542 |
| Babe Ruth | Bob Meusel | Earle Combs | 486 |
| Al Simmons | Bing Miller | Mule Haas | 465 |
| Jackie Jensen | Jim Piersall | Ted Williams | 449 |
| Bobby Veach | Harry Heilmann | Ty Cobb | 448 |
| Charlie Keller | Joe DiMaggio | Tommy Henrich | 394 |
| Carlos Lee | Hunter Pence | Michael Bourn | 387 |
| Dwayne Murphy | Rickey Henderson | Tony Armas | 386 |
The Williams-Tobin-Jacobson trio patrolled the outfield for the St. Louis Browns primarily from 1920 through 1924.
Would be interested in knowing the figures for the highest ranked ACTIVE trios on each of these lists (i.e. where all three are still teammates, potentially able to add to their totals)
Coming into 2016, the LF/CF/RF alignment with the most games played is Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna and Giancarlo Stanton with 158, and the outfield trio (regardless of position) is Bryce Harper, Denard Span and Jayson Werth with 173 (with Yelich, Ozuna and Stanton next at 158).
Thank you, Diana!