Anti-DiMaggios

Fifty-six is one of those special baseball numbers. Today, people start to get excited when someone has a hitting streak half as long as Joe DiMaggio's, a fact I think underlines just how special that record is. No one seems to get excited about the converse of his record, the most consecutive games without a hit. There are good reasons for that. Baseball fans tend not to like futility and it's a type of streak that's somewhat hard to follow. Sure, an everyday player that doesn't get a hit for a few games might get noticed on the local level, but the longest hitless streaks are put together by pinch hitters who usually have one at bat per game. As such, it's less notable when they don't get a hit. Someone might say, "he doesn't have a hit since..." but that doesn't really spark a recollection of all the games he's been in recently, does it? Another hurdle is the MLB rule for hitting streaks: to count as a game played, a player must have an at bat or sacrifice fly. A pinch hitter that draws a walk has still done his job, but it doesn't count as a game played in terms of his streak.

With all that in mind, here are the twenty-four pinch hitters and other non-pitchers over the last fifty-two seasons to go without a hit in twenty or more straight games.

Most Consecutive Hitless Games, 1956-2007
Player must have at least 1 AB or SF in each game

Name	Start	End	G	AB
Harry Anderson	07-05-1960	04-30-1961	29	35
Andy Fox	05-05-2004	09-30-2004	28	38
Phil Gagliano	05-03-1974	10-01-1974	26	27
Phil Stephenson	07-26-1992	10-02-1992	25	35
Charlie Manuel	07-20-1969	10-01-1969	23	36
Lou Camilli	08-09-1969	04-20-1971	23	34
Len Matuszek	04-19-1982	09-07-1983	23	34
Jim Fairey	07-31-1972	09-22-1972	23	27
Del Unser	09-07-1981	06-06-1982	23	27
Norm Siebern	09-15-1966	05-12-1967	22	36
Jeff Grotewold	08-19-1992	06-12-1995	22	23
Dave Campbell	05-18-1973	09-18-1973	21	43
Jose Gonzalez	10-03-1990	07-04-1991	21	32
Floyd Wicker	05-16-1969	08-22-1969	21	24
George Wilson	06-27-1956	08-23-1956	21	21
Richie Hebner	08-15-1985	09-26-1985	21	21
Joe McEwing	05-26-2002	07-05-2002	20	33
Rocky Nelson	07-25-1961	09-29-1961	20	29
Mike Fiore	09-05-1970	06-09-1971	20	29
Willie Smith	04-24-1971	09-28-1971	20	25
Adrian Garrett	09-21-1971	05-04-1973	20	23
Tom Hutton	04-27-1981	08-30-1981	20	23
Dwight Smith	06-03-1995	07-14-1995	20	20
John Vander Wal	08-08-2004	09-17-2004	20	20

As you can see, most of these guys were one at bat and done for most of their games. Dave Campbell's streak is notable because he actually averaged two at bats per game.

Just for kicks, I looked up the longest active streaks: Laynce Nix of the Brewers has a 12-game streak going. Brandon Fahey of the Orioles has an 11-game streak, as does Nick Green of the Yankees. Free agent Mark Bellhorn and Pete Laforest of the Phillies have 10-game streaks. Of these five, only Fahey has a real shot to make a major league roster to start the year, though Nick Green has yet to be sent to the minors.