ALEXANDER

There is something that sort of ties these guys together. All three were involved in notable trades.

Doyle gets 2; November 23, 1976 Yankees traded Doyle Alexander, Ken Holtzman, Elrod Hendricks, Grant Jackson, and Jimmy Freeman to the Baltimore Orioles for Rick Dempsey, Scott McGregor, Tippy Martinez, Rudy May, and Dave Pagan. and then on August 12, 1987 the Braves traded Doyle Alexander to the Detroit Tigers for John Smoltz.

Gary; March 15, 1978: Traded by the San Francisco Giants with a player to be named later, Dave Heaverlo, Phil Huffman, John Henry Johnson, Gary Thomasson, Alan Wirth and $300,000 to the Oakland Athletics for Vida Blue. The San Francisco Giants sent Mario Guerrero (April 7, 1978) to the Oakland Athletics to complete the trade.

Matt, had the least notable; he was traded from the Cubs to the A’s with Bob Locker to the Oakland Athletics for Horacio Piña who pitched 47 innings for the Cubs in 1974, his stats were far worse after the trade.

ANDERSON

Jim: 419 MLB games played majors, 803 minors.  In the majors he had three two year stints when he was with the Angels, Mariners and Rangers.  He had 13 career home runs and hit .218.

Rick: Major Leagues 6 games in the majors never getting a decision, striking out 7 and walking 14 over 2 seasons.  Why they sought to include him as a future star is puzzling.  He was 26 in 1980 and those were his career stats.  They don’t jump out as dazzling.

FORSCH

In 1980, Ken Forsch and his brother Bob Forsch did face each other, though not in the same game. Ken Forsch was pitching for the Houston Astros getting the win 4-2, while Bob Forsch was with the St. Louis Cardinals as a reliever where he pitched a scoreless inning (in a win/loss)
As starting pitchers in the same game; at the Astrodome on August 29, 1978 there was a pitchers’ duel — both brothers went the distance, but Bob edged Ken with just enough run support.Result: Cardinals 2, Astros 1

Then on May 25, 1979 Bob Forsch bettered his last outing by pitching a complete game shutout, while Ken took the loss. Result: Cardinals 6, Astros 0.

The two had already made history in 1979 by becoming the only set of brothers to each throw a no-hitter in MLB, with Ken no-hitting the Braves on April 7, 1979, and Bob no-hitting the Mets on June 23, 1979.

IORG

I always thought these guys were Canadian. I think it was because Garth played for Toronto and that was a Canadian name, to me. I knew of no Dane’s but assumed since it was not a common name it was also Canadian but alas they were from California.
They never played each other in a game because Garth solely played for the Blue Jays and Dane solely played in the National League with the Padres and Cardinals. There might be a universe where they met in the 1985 World Series. That year the Blue Jays had a 3-1 lead on Kansas City only to lose the last three games and miss the World Series.
That might have changed the fate of both Iorgs because KC ended up winning the crown. Had Toronto been in it at least one brother would have won.

UNDERWOOD

Tom was also on Toronto in 1980 and Pat was on Detroit. Tom was a starter and Pat was a spot starter and middle reliever.

Per the always accurate Wikipedia; “Underwood (Pat) started the 1979 season in Evansville and had a 2–3 record and an ERA of 2.81. He was called up by the Tigers and pitched his first game on May 31 against the Toronto Blue Jays at Exhibition Stadium. Making the start for the Jays was his brother, Tom.

Tom found the whole thing stupid, but the brothers brought their best. Pat did not give up a hit until the fifth inning. Tom allowed four hits and struck out four in keeping the Tigers scoreless through seven. Then, Tigers center fielder Jerry Morales led off the eighth with a home run. Pat pitched into the ninth before handing the game over to the bullpen with one out. For Tom, it was a complete game loss.”

They were from Kokomo, Indiana. Both lefties and Tom had 86 wins, 18 saves and a career ERA of 3.89, Pat had 13 wins, 8 saves and a career ERA of 4.43.

MURRAY

I didn’t know until very recently that Rich Murray was Eddie’s brother. Maybe the absence of the mutton chops his brother had and the fact that he only played in 57 career games and that this was his sole Topps card were also reasons. At this point Eddie was a superstar. Since they were in different leagues (Giants and Orioles) they never played against each other.

NIEKRO

Phil and Joe Niekro, in 2025 Sarah Langs of mlb.com ranked the Niekro brothers as the #4 greatest sibling combo in MLB history. From a kid’s perspective they were pretty divergent in terms of their cards, I didn’t think to look on the back and see they were 5 years apart. But to me they were almost father son.

They are so underrated in time. Phil is a Hall of Famer so he go his just due. But they are both lost artifacts of baseball, the knuckleballer. They were the second set of brothers to face each other in a major league game. The first was Jesse and Virgil Barnes in the 1920s.

They most memorably faced each other in 1976 where Joe homered off Phil. This is an excerpt from the excellent article referenced below.

Joe claimed his third win by pitching eight innings, giving up only one earned run on four hits, and striking out six. At one point, he retired 15 straight batters. Phil gave up nine hits in 7⅓ innings and took his fourth loss. Phil said after the game, “Joe pitched a good game. Much better than I did. He threw strikes. I was in trouble all night. He had it going, I didn’t.”

It turned out to be the only home run of Joe’s 22-year career, and it came as a surprise to him. Joe said, “It was a knuckleball. I didn’t know it was going. I knew I hit it good though. When I got to first, Bob Lillis (first-base coach) said it was a home run, and I almost missed the bag. I couldn’t believe it.”

May 29, 1976: Joe Niekro victimizes brother Phil with his only career home run – Society for American Baseball Research

BANDO

Band O’ Brothers or sumthin?  Sal was at the end of his career, with no cards issued after this one, by Topps.  He did play in 1981 though. Chris, 14 years younger, didn’t debut until August 13, 1981.  On that date the Indians were facing the Brewers.  Chris got an at bat but Sal did not.  The two teams did not meet again the remainder of 1981, both played a complete game in the last game of the season, neither getting a hit.