Help settle a bet, er, .......debate....

Ok, so a friend of mine and I are arguing over something here & I can't find an answer on the net. The big question is......

Of the 4 major North American sports - NFL, NBA, MLB & NHL - what two franchises have played each other the most times? We are counting regular season, playoffs, everything. I figure it has to be either baseball or hockey teams since the leagues are older and they have longer seasons. If it's hockey, it has to be 2 of the original six teams obviously like Toronto-Montreal or Bruins - Red Wings. If it's baseball, it has to be 2 old teams from the same league like Yankees-Red Sox or Cubs-Cardinals. Whaddya think?

That's an interesting question. I think it has to be in MLB. Who I don't know.duxup

[QUOTE="duxup"]That's an interesting question. I think it has to be in MLB. Who I don't know.cell_dweller

Yeah Hockey is a possibility, I'm thinking Baseball would have played more games on average and so whatever teams would be involved would have had more chances to play each other. I'm not sure though, schedules have of course changed over the years and if there are a ton of teams that could lower the chances of the same teams meeting.

Interesting question. Using this page: http://www.baseball-reference.com/games/head2head.shtml I found this:
SF/NY Giants v. LA/Bn Dodgers 2122
STL Cardinals v. Pit Pirates 2111
Chi Cubs v. STL Cardinals 2106
Chi Cubs v. Pit Pirates 2103
Bal Orioles v. NY Yankees 2040
Bos Red Sox v. Bal Orioles 2029
Bos Red Sox v. NY Yankees 2028

This was just some quick looking around, but I'd say those are probably the most. I'm not sure if these numbers include playoffs, but since these are mostly divisional rivalries, the number of playoff games is less significant until the wild card was invented in 94.