Diamond Duels: Baseball's Greatest Matchups

John Nogowski, sportswriter and former teacher, in his second book on baseball takes a deep dive into the baseball statistical data bases relying primarily on Stathead and Baseball-Reference.com. These tools allow Nogowski to take a journey through the decades of baseball history and examine the performances of baseball greats, and not so greats, in matchups against one another.

Diamond Duels examines the primary matchup in baseball: pitcher vs. batter. The focus is on career statistics in the matchups rather than individual duels in high stakes at-bats. He also examines the anomalies found in these statistics at the margins. Along the way, Nogowski notes the significant ways in which the game has changed over the years.

Some matchups simply do not follow statistical expectation. Mediocre pitchers sometimes dominate top hitters, and great pitchers sometimes are battered by marginal hitters. These are the matchups that get full examination by Nogowski, and the results are often surprising and confounding. These are the cases that seem to be explained only by the phrase, “that’s baseball.”

Nogowski also examines those cases in which one player seems to own another. For example, in Chapter Seven Dodger outfielder Duke Snider is the focal point. The great Phillies pitcher, Robin Roberts, was touched up for 19 home runs by Snider. In another case spanning two decades, Warren Spahn faced Stan Musial 356 times and Musial homered off Spahn 15 times. Hank Aaron took Don Drysdale deep 17 times. And there are many others.

In some chapters, comparisons of two players are the sole subject. Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams are the subject of Chapter Six. This is one of the longest chapters in the book and no doubt will attract considerable attention. Will it settle the long-running argument over who was the better between the two? Probably not, but there is a lot to chew on here.

In other chapters, individual players are dissected. Among these are Christy Mathewson, whom Nogowski finds statistically falls short of his reputation. Whitey Ford’s pitching career gets an extensive analysis, and his reputation does not stand up well under scrutiny.  

In another case, Pete Rose is lauded as a player. The numbers are overwhelming, but Nogowski goes into Rose’s gambling issues and his post-baseball life where he finds Rose less than admirable. Coincidently, in recent days the case of Pete Rose has come front and center once again.

In other chapters, Duke Snider, Henry Aaron, Lefty Grove, and Pedro Martinez are measured. Lefty Grove and Sandy Koufax are compared at some length.

Among the interesting, but perhaps not so significant matchups, are Honus Wagner vs. Christy Mathewson, Dizzy Dean vs. Babe Ruth, and Carl Yastrzemski vs. Satchel Paige. Each of these occur in a single game. Two other single games of note are Cy Young’s farewell and Mel Ott’s first homerun.

Regarded as one of the greatest pitchers of his or any generation is Walter Johnson. The two matchups chosen for examination are Johnson vs. Ruth and Johnson vs. Cobb.

Other than player analysis, Nogowski looks at other aspects of baseball including first inning home runs, ninth inning home runs, game tying home runs, and walk-off home runs. There is a look at grand slam homeruns, three run homeruns, two run homers, and solo homers. These are some of the many matchups, comparisons, and analyses in Diamond Duels.

It may seem like this is a heavily laden statistical tome. It is dependent on statistics, but it is much more than statistics as Nogowski makes interesting observations about players and the oddities related to their careers, as well as the changing nature of baseball and how the changes impact player evaluation.

That said, this is not a book for someone not familiar with the history of baseball. You need a knowledge of the greats of the game and the history of the game to stay engaged. It helps if you love statistics or are some sort of baseball nerd. If you are any of these “baseball bugs” (a term out of the past) then you will love this book. If you are a fan with some knowledge of the history of the game you will enjoy Nogowski’s analysis and argue with his opinions. One cautionary note, if you chose to read Diamond Duels, do so a few chapters at a time to avoid the risk of an overdose.