Bill Bergen still stands alone
Posted by John Autin on August 6, 2011
Craig Counsell was hitless in his last 45 at-bats, one shy of the longest known hitless streak by a non-pitcher -- a mark held, as are virtually all records for bat-wielding futility, by Bill Bergen, the catching wizard of the Brooklyn Superbas. (N.Y. Times article; Stephen Colbert segment)
But with 2 out in the 9th, Counsell pinch-hit for the pitcher and singled to RF -- a meaningless hit in a blowout win that probably brought everyone in the Milwaukee dugout to the top step.
Bill Bergen cannot be beaten.
August 6th, 2011 at 1:31 am
Colbert covered thiss last night. You should link it. Pretty funny.
August 6th, 2011 at 1:31 am
JA, you've been busy tonight!
I'm sure you wrote this blog just to be able to mention the Brooklyn Superbras. 🙂
August 6th, 2011 at 1:39 am
@3, Gonzo -- Dunn ... er, done.
August 6th, 2011 at 1:42 am
@4, Neil -- I'm not sure if you actually meant to type "Superbras," but ... either way is good.
BTW, that NY Times piece I linked above has a quick explanation of the source of the Superbas' nickname.
August 6th, 2011 at 1:49 am
Gosh, JA, must have been a Freudian slip. I didn't have lingerie on my mind. Can't even blame the late hour, chalk it up to my crummy keyboarding skills.
August 6th, 2011 at 2:10 am
I thought Robin Ventura had a longer streak in his rookie season.
August 6th, 2011 at 2:33 am
@6, Mccombe -- Nope, Ventura's 1990 hitless streak was 41 ABs, from his last AB on April 18 through his first AB on May 11.
He broke it with a bunt single, but added a HR later in the game.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=venturo01&t=b&year=1990
August 6th, 2011 at 2:34 am
Sorry, nothing to post on Bergen or Counsell at the moment, but the Pirates-Padres linescore from tonight begs some attention, somewhere.
Pirates 5 runs on 9 walks, 15 hits, Padres 15 runs on 4 walks and 15 hits.
It's only happened four times before in the BBRef-searchable era that a team with 24 or more baserunners in a nine-innng game, not including ROE, has scored five or fewer runs.
Complete list,
http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/shareit/McWAz
Hasn't happened since 1979. All of the other incidences were one-run games, interestingly, with two wins and two losses for the offending team. All resulted in five runs scored for the qualifying team.
Sadly, the Pirates accomplished something pretty (negatively) historic tonight to extend their losing streak. To rub salt in the wound of losing, Padres left only 6 baserunners on to the Pirates' 16.
Wouldn't want to see Pedro Alvarez's WPA for the game, although only one of his 3 GIDP came with the bases loaded.
August 6th, 2011 at 2:40 am
Neil, check out the lead in "Friday night factoids":
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/13714
It was a notable game, alright.
August 6th, 2011 at 2:45 am
And we have a new leader in the "Damning With Faint Praise" Sweepstakes!:
"... although only one of his 3 GIDP came with the bases loaded."
Neil, I didn't know you did tongue-in-cheek!
[Signing off. Good night, all!]
August 6th, 2011 at 2:51 am
@9
JA, I should have known you'd be all over the "factoid" even this late at ....no, make it this early in the morning. 🙂
Thanks, great job on the factoids, will have to respond later today.
August 6th, 2011 at 4:06 am
I'm pretty sure that the NY Times article that said Bergen held the record with 46 hittless ABs was wrong. I believe Counsell and Bergern are tied.
August 6th, 2011 at 4:10 am
@12 -- Adding to my post. It was Steve Hirdt of Elias that reported they were tied at 45.
August 6th, 2011 at 4:10 am
Craig Counsell will never top Bill Bergen on this list. In fact, no one will.
August 6th, 2011 at 9:42 am
How has a 40 year old journeyman batting .150 remained on a major league roster?
August 6th, 2011 at 9:53 am
[...] Counsell got a pinch-hit single last night. Bill Bergen retains the record. http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/13716 Official sponsor of my daughter Sarah, SPOILERS!, and the St. Louis Cardinals Isa turn the [...]
August 6th, 2011 at 10:05 am
Actually, can we get some clarification on whether the record is 0-45 or 0-46? I had always read before that it was 0-46 and was held by Bergen alone, supposedly Elias is now saying 0-45 and a three-way tie as noted above, but multiple news sources today are saying that it's 0-46 and Counsell was one short--what's the deal?
August 6th, 2011 at 10:09 am
@2
Isn't Superbra something that Dolly Parton wears?
August 6th, 2011 at 10:22 am
John--
I don't know how anyone can say "Bill Bergen Stands alone" while Jeff Mathis is still active.
It isn't a matter of "if". It's a matter of "when"
Go Spartans
August 6th, 2011 at 10:24 am
@18
All right, all right, Richard! You know where my mind was when my thick fingers were working. 🙂
August 6th, 2011 at 10:38 am
@19, Sparty 🙂 --
Mathis may be giving it the ol' junior college try, but I just don't think he lacks enough of what it takes. Five straight years between .181 and .211 puts him in the range of a Ray Oyler, say, but it's still a long way to Bergenfield.
August 6th, 2011 at 10:44 am
Re: the conflicting accounts of Bergen's oh-fer (46 or 45 ABs) --
I can't say which account is definitive. The 0-46 reported by the NYTimes was based on SABR research. The Elias count of 0-45 may be correct, but I'm not inclined to automatically give them precedence without knowing the basis of their correction.
August 6th, 2011 at 10:59 am
@14 : Schrek made that list !
August 6th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
I just read about Bill Bergen`s brother Marty, who was also a catcher in the National League.Like his brother he had a reputation as a good defensive catcher,but he fared a lot better at the plate(.265 lifetime average).He had severe mental problems while playing and ended up brutally murdering his wife and children before committing suicide with a razor(he was virtually decapitated).Total nightmare.Saddest,most tragic baseball story ever!
August 6th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
While we are on this topic does anyone know the record for most hitless AB by a pitcher? I know that Bob Buhl had something like 86 of those AB back in the early 60s.
August 6th, 2011 at 6:32 pm
In looking at Bill Bergen's page...he had a career OPS+ of 21. Is this the lowest? He managed to accumulate over 3,000 AB. He must have either been a superb defensive catcher in his day to play 11 years.
@18-thanks for the laugh. I never saw that before. Must have been alot of
dissapointed men so many years ago in Brooklyn.
August 6th, 2011 at 6:47 pm
@26
IronHorse:
I googled Bill Bergen and he was a superb (not superbra) catcher and has been ranked very highly among the all-time defensive catchers. He played in an era when catchers were regarded for their defense especially with a abundance of bunts and stolen base attempts. Also catchers did not quite have the same protective equipment which came along later on and they(catchers) were hard to come by. It wasn't until guys like Hartnett, Cochrane and Dickey appeared that there were really good hitting catchers.
August 6th, 2011 at 6:54 pm
BTW, I do recommend the New York Times article about Bergen that I linked to in the post.
August 6th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
@26, Iron Horse: Bergen "had a career OPS+ of 21. Is this the lowest?"
Larrupin' Lou, please refer to the title of the post.
(Translation: Yes, by miles and miles. The 2nd-worst career OPS+ with at least 3,000 PAs is 44, by one Denton True Young. The 2nd-worst by a non-pitcher is 49 by Hal Lanier.)
August 6th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Bill Bergen once threw out 6 would-be base stealers in one game(in 1909).Needless to stay,an unsurpassed record to this day!
August 6th, 2011 at 7:05 pm
I can still remember my disbelief when one of my first Play Index searches brought the name of Bill Bergen to my attention. It's a shock to the system for anyone who isn't properly braced. You'll never view Ray Oyler in quite the same way afterwards.
August 6th, 2011 at 7:12 pm
Sorry Neil but I could not resist this one. Do the Brooklyn Superbra of your post #2 and your Freudian slip of post #5 form a matching set?
August 6th, 2011 at 7:29 pm
@32, RC -- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 6th, 2011 at 8:41 pm
@32
Richard, nice. Hey, you're just as bad as me. Let me just quit while I'm behind. 🙁
August 9th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Here's a list that Bill Bergen does not lead — fewest total batting runs in a career:
Larry Bowa, -320
Alfredo Griffin, -306
Ozzie Guillén, -303
Bill Bergen, -291
Tommy Thevenow, -290
Change it to fewest batting runs per game, though, and Bergen falls back to his rightful place. The Dirtiest Dozen:
Bill Bergen, -0.307
Jim Levey, -0.295
Tommy Thevenow, -0.236
Freddie Maguire, -0.231
Skeeter Webb, -0.230
Moe Berg, -0.220
Matt Walbeck, -0.220
Rey Ordóñez, -0.209
Rabbit Warstler, -0.207
Billy Hunter, -0.206
Oscar Melillo, -0.202
Hal Lanier, -0.201
August 13th, 2011 at 5:12 am
That 46 AB streak was based on research by SABR member Joe Dittmar in 1997. After the New York Times article was published on August 3, Dittmar went back to confirm his original research — and discovered that Bergen's streak was actually 45. There was a fuzzy number for the July 14 game that he thought was a 3 but it was not. I looked at a box score for that game. It was a 2.
August 14th, 2011 at 12:44 am
So I have to change the title of the post? 🙂