Eugenio Velez Is In Rare Company, Sets Record for Most Consecutive At-Bats Without A Hit by a Non-Pitcher

(Photo by Artolog)

Bill Bergen’s record of 46 consecutive at-bats without a hit went unchallenged for over one hundred years. But in 2011, it came under assault three separate times. First, it was Craig Counsell who singled in his 46th at bat off of Enerio Del Rosario, successfully falling short of the record by one at-bat. But when Joe Dittmar looked back into the records and found that, no, what he originally thought was a three was actually a two, he knocked Bill Bergen’s record for futility down to 45, forcing Bergen to share the record with Counsell, giving Dave Campbell his share of the glory, too.

But on the last day of the season, and with little to no attention paid to his build up, Eugenio Velez did one better, wiping all three men from the books with his eighth inning groundout against Micah Owings. It was Velez’s 46th consecutive at-bat without a hit, but making matters even worse was that Velez went the entire 2011 campaign without a hit. When Velez gets his Topps card next season, he’ll look down and see that in 37 at-bats with the Dodgers, he had a fat .000 batting averge. The last time Velez reached base on accord of his bat? July 23, 2010.

Don’t feel too bad for Velez, though, as a record like this is one part bad luck in congruence with one part poor play. Though he may not see it this way, Velez is now a baseball immortal, his name proudly atop one of baseball’s not-so-hallowed records.

(h/t Hardball Talk)