Recently, Raphy posted a blog concerning the oldest pair of players to start a game at each position. Not surprisingly, the position of pitcher had the oldest starters, with one instance of a game with each starting pitcher over 44 years old – Jamie Moyer vs. David Wells on July 21, 2007.

That got me to thinking about what would be the oldest matchup of batter vs. pitcher. After some research, it appears the answer is also 44 years – that is, both batter and pitcher at least 44 years old. Note that I’m referring to an actual plate appearance, not just players appearing in the same game. Here are those games, indicating the final career matchup for each pair, with the oldest matchup highlighted.

 The Franco/Clemens game came more than 23 years after their first matchup (in Clemens’ career debut), likely the longest span of competition for any two players.

Since 44 years is our limit, I filled out the above list with other games where the combined age of batter and pitcher exceeds 88 years. Here are those games, chronologically.

 For the record, I have omitted from the list above 4 matchups from Satchel Paige’s one-game 1965 cameo with the As at age 59 (although Satch acquitted himself admirably, pitching 3 scoreless frames and allowing only one hit).

Some notes:

• The Faber/Quinn tilt was a tense affair as they duelled each other in relief through scoreless 8^th and 9^th inning frames of a tie game. Faber got nicked for two runs in the 10^th, but Quinn couldn’t hold the lead, giving up two unearned tallies in the home 10^th. In the end, neither figured in the decision as the White Sox prevailed in the 11^th.
• The Manny Mota game was his final career AB, pinch-hitting for Mike Scioscia. Kaat retired him in the 13^th inning, with the tying run at 2^nd base.
• The Rabbit Maranville matchup was the final game of Jack Quinn’s career, 6 days after his 50^th birthday.  
• The Saltzgaver/Lisenbee matchup was a wartime special, as each player that season was making his first major league appearance in many years (8 years for Saltzgaver, 9 years for Lisenbee). To both their credits, they stuck with it for the full season, with Saltzgaver particularly giving a good account of himself (.325 BA, 115 OPS+). Lisenbee’s final game on Sep 7, 1945 (before a double-header “crowd” of just 675) was the last ML appearance for a player born in the 1800s.
• Kind of cool also to see Mays and Aaron next to each other on this list. Wilhelm struck out Mays to end the game and earn a save.  Aaron, though, singled home the tie-breaking run in the 9^th as Wilhelm took the loss.
• In the Moyer/Maddux tilt, Moyer prevailed 1-0 on a Pat Burrell HR. Both pitchers went 7 strong innings.

Which matchup do you think will be the next to make this list?