Don't Give Up Without a Swing

Yesterday I posted about Eddie Collins and Ray Chapman, two of the most prolific sacrifice bunters in baseball history. Today I want to look at the other side of the same topic: players who never had a single sacrifice hit. Unsurprisingly, many active players and guys who retired recently are on top of the list of most plate appearances without a sacrifice hit.

Most Career Plate Appearances with Zero Career Sacrifice Hits, 1895*-2008
(active players in red)

1. Frank Thomas, 9938
2. Harmon Killebrew, 9831
3. Carlos Delgado, 8021
4. Mike Piazza, 7745
5. Eric Karros, 7100
6. Tim Salmon, 7039
7. Vladimir Guerrero, 6991
8. George Bell, 6586
9. Mo Vaughn, 6410
10. Cecil Fielder, 5939
11. Sean Casey, 5491
12. Richie Sexson, 5413
13. Troy Glaus, 5372
14. Eric Chavez, 5156
15. Pat Burrell, 4913
16. Tony Clark, 4894
17. Aubrey Huff, 4349
18. Richard Hidalgo, 3927
19. Mark Teixeira, 3413
20. Terrence Long, 3325

* - Sacrifice Hits have been recorded since 1895

Simply by choosing a convenient year to end the search can change this list dramatically. I chose 1980 because it's a round number and only one member of the previous list appears on the new leaderboard. If a player got a sacrifice hit after 1980, however, I took him off the list. Not fair, perhaps, but that's okay, I'm cherry-picking anyway. :)

Most Career Plate Appearances with Zero Career Sacrifice Hits, 1895*-1980

1. Harmon Killebrew, 9831
2. Willie Aikens, 1171
3. Pancho Herrera, 1108
4. Brant Alyea, 982
5. Danny Walton, 881
6. Hawk Taylor, 766
7. Jim Beauchamp, 730
8. Jouett Meekin, 645*
9. Tim Harkness, 632
10. Bill McGhee, 583
11. Jerry Davanon, 574
12. Carlos Paula, 492
13. Larry Elliot, 486
14. Amos Rusie, 475*
15. Carmen Mauro, 456
16. Dave Schneck, 443
17. Charlie Manuel, 432
18. Heinz Becker, 412
19. Clint Hartung, 403
20. George Tebeau, 388*
21. Frank Baker, 384

*Meekin, Rusie, and Tebeau all played before 1895, so they could have had sacrifice hits that went unrecorded. Tebeau was a regular position player for five seasons prior to his final season in 1895 so I included the player below him on the list since I'm leery of assuming he actually had zero sacrifices. Meekin and Rusie had a number of seasons after 1895 in which they had zero sacrifices.