Most seasons without a plate appearance
Posted by Andy on August 9, 2007
I was looking for something unrelated, and did an unusual search. On the PI Batting Season finder, I set Plate Appearances to zero, unchecked "pitcher" as the possible position, and then sorted the results by most seasons.
Here's what you get:
From To Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons +-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+ Herb Washington 1974 1975 22-23 2 Ind. Seasons Leroy Powell 1955 1957 21-23 2 Ind. Seasons Sibby Sisti 1946 1954 25-33 2 Ind. Seasons George Susce 1932 1941 24-33 2 Ind. Seasons Ed Hock 1920 1923 21-24 2 Ind. Seasons Billy Sullivan 1914 1916 39-41 2 Ind. Seasons
There are tons of players with one such season, but let's focus on these guys with two seasons.
As soon as I saw the name Herb Washington, I remembered who he was. For those who don't know, check out his bio at BaseballLibrary.com. He was a sprinter used exclusively as a pinch-runner, never once coming to the plate. It's impossible to fathom such a roster luxury these days. Of course, given that Washington's stolen base percentage wasn't even all that good, nobody would even consider doing such a thing these days.
I have never heard the name Sibby Sisti, but it looks like he missed one year for miltary service (but appeared in one game) and then his last year he appeared in 9 games but never batted. Unfortunately I am not able to find box scores for those games to tell for sure.
George Susce had 4 different seasons with 2 or fewer plate appearances (registering 0 in two of them.
Billy Sullivan got credit for one game 2 years after he finished playing, and another one 4 years after.
All the other guys on this list seem to be people who barely appeared in the big leagues at all, perhaps pinch-running a couple of times but never sticking. Do you know more about any of them?
August 10th, 2007 at 7:40 am
If Arod does surpass whatever Bonds gets in Home runs, the whole home run king thing will be put back in order. IMO, the most annoying thing about Bonds succession to Aaron is the way his numbers were accomplished. Bottomline, no player has ever totally transformed his production from a good borderline homerun hitter to a great home run hitter to a super human home run hitter.When Aaron played he was pitched to .When Bonds morphed he was not. Look at the walks, Aaron had a career total of 1402, Bonds ' walks was off the charts at 2541 in less seasons. Look at Bonds, he hit 292 hrs in his first ten years. Duh, thats an average of 29.2 for the 1st ten. In the next 12 years, he hits 465. Thats an average of 38.75 per year as he gets older. Aaron on the other hand, was a model of consistency. His 1st 10 years the hammer whacked 301 ( an average of 30.1 a year), in his last 13 years he hit 454 an average of 34.9 per year granted, a slight improvement , but very balanced compare to 29 vs 39.
Getting back to Arod. He has hit 500 in 14 seasons. He averages 35.7 per year. He needs 300 more to get 800. Which maybe enough to beat Bonds. At a rate of 35.7 a year it will take him 8.4 years to get that amount of HRS. Then he will have finished his career as he started, a great consistent home run hitter. Period end of sentence. With Arod completing his symetrical career we will have new order restored in baseball history. Not this warped cartoon figure, that is despised
by most people.for his personna and his dishonesty in the way he has tainted the most coveted record in all of sports. Hail the real king! Not the cartoon like figure that is nothing more than a product of modern chemistry projects.
August 10th, 2007 at 7:53 am
spindoc, I think you summed it up nicely. It is true that all players today, A-rod included, will be under suspicion of the use of PEDs (performance enhancing drugs.) But, if A-rod does continue to hit HRs at a constant pace, and since he has never showed any obvious physical signs that he may have used steroids or HGH (such as facial changes or massive muscular growth), I agree with you that there will be significantly less scrutiny.