The Phillies' Raul Ibanez goes for the reverse DiMaggio

The Phillies' Raul Ibanez goes for the reverse DiMaggio

I don't know what the record is for most consecutive games WITHOUT a hit, but Ibanez is off to a blazing start in his pursuit of that coveted honor. He is 0-for-31 in his last ten games .

Even more depressing is the fact that he was batting only .233 before the streak started. He has now worked that down to .154.

Ibanez has had a pretty damned good career. For a decade or so he could be relied upon to bat .280 or.290 with mid-range power. That distinguised series of years has been bookended by a horrible beginning and (so far) end. After his first two abbreviated seasons in the bigs, his lifetime batting average was .129.

Additional note, added later: I couldn't find anything about consecutive games without a hit, but MLB does have some records for consecutive hitless at-bats. Bill Bergen, a pathetically weak-hitting catcher from the 1909 Brooklyn Superbas, holds the record for a non-pitcher. He went hitless for 46 consecutive at-bats. Ibanez has a decent shot at that, but Bergen deserves that record. He's generally considered the worst hitter in baseball history among players with ten or more years of experience. His hitting was legendary. His lifetime OPS+ was 21. Compare that to 32 and 46 for Casey Wise and Ray Oyler, the two worst hitters in my memory. Bergen batted .170 lifetime, with two homers in 3200 at-bats. In 11 major league summers, he topped .200 only once.

Man must have been a helluva defensive wizard.

The overall record is held by Bob Buhl, a pitcher for the Milwaukee Braves. He was a very dependable second or third starter for the Braves in their glory years, teaming up with Spahn and Burdette to form an impressive troika. In fact, Buhl had the club's best winning percentage in their world championship year of 1957. He went 18-7 (.720, compared to .656 and .654 for Spahn and Burdette), and fashioned a very nifty 2.74 ERA. He led the league in W-L percentage and came very close in ERA (the leader finished at 2.66). Spahn almost unanimously won the Cy Young that year with 21-11 and 2.69, but Buhl's season was as good. You old-timers probably remember that Lew Burdette stole the thunder from both of them when he won three starts in the World Series. (Buhl started twice and was crushed by the mighty Yankees. He never made it through the third inning. Spahn was 1-1.) Manager Fred Haney made one of the most brilliant intuitive gambles in baseball history in the seventh game of that series when he started the red-hot Burdette on two days rest instead of Spahn, who was not only the Cy Young winner, but also arguably the greatest pitcher of his era.

By the way, Buhl did finish 14th in the MVP balloting that year, which is pretty damned impressive for a third starter.

So the man could pitch.

Hitting was another matter. His lifetime batting average was .089, and his adjusted OPS was below zero.

Buhl went 0-for-70 in the 1962 season. Counting his appearances before and after that season, he went 88 consecutive at-bats without a hit. That's the record.