Bill Bergen

William Aloysius Bergen (June 13, 1878 – December 19, 1943) was an American professional baseball catcher. He played eleven seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1901 to 1911 for the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Superbas/Dodgers."Bill Bergen Statistics and History"
"baseball-reference.com. Accessed June 1, 2017. He was one of the worst-hitting position players in the history of the Major Leagues, but was also one of the best defensive catchers of all time. His -6.9 career WAR (according to Baseball Reference) is the worst among every MLB player in history.

At the plate

Bergen was a fine defensive catcher whose dubious claim to fame was his offensive ineptitude. No one played in the major leagues as long as Bill Bergen and hit so poorly. Bergen had 3,028 career at-bats, during which he compiled a batting average of .170 (516/3028), a record low for players with more than 2,500 plate appearances. Pitchers are traditionally the weakest-hitting player in the lineup, yet three hurlers with more than 2,500 plate appearances accrued higher career batting averages than Bergen: Pud Galvin with .201, Bobby Mathews with .203, and Cy Young with .210. Among position players (non-pitchers), the next lowest career batting average is Billy Sullivan with .213 (a remarkable .043 differential). Bergen's career on-base percentage (OBP) was .194—he is the only player with at least 500 at-bats who tallied an OBP under .200. During five of his major league seasons, both his OBP and slugging percentage were under .200. He hit only two home runs in his career—and both were inside-the-park. In 1909, Bergen hit .139, the lowest average in history for a player with the minimum number of plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. From 1904 to 1911, Dodger pitchers as a group outhit Bergen, .169 to .162.Pepper 50

Per 150 games played (extended to an average MLB season), Bergen averaged only 11 extra-base hits and 15 walks. Throughout his 3,229 career plate appearances, Bergen was never hit by a pitch, a major league record that stood for over 85 years until broken by Mark Lemke in 1997.

In 1909, Bergen set another record for futility with a span of 45 consecutive at-bats without a base hit, which at the time was the longest streak ever by a position player (non-pitcher). The record stood for 102 years, and was broken in 2011 by Eugenio Vélez, who also played for the Dodgers. Baseball historian Craig Wright wrote, "Forgotten today is how close Bergen came to extending his record. He ended his streak with what was described as a 'lucky hit,' an infield hit he beat out after his grounder 'caromed off itcher Ed Reulbachs glove.”

Behind the plate

Despite his lack of batting skills, Bergen remained an active major leaguer for so long because he played in an era when pitching dominated and he was a first-rate defensive catcher. In 1908, ''The Sporting News'' called him one of the best catchers in the game. Charles Faber, in his book ''Baseball Ratings'', called Bergen the third-best defensive catcher in history, behind Gabby Hartnett and Pop Snyder, and ahead of Johnny Edwards and Roy Campanella. ''Total Baseball

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