(Congratulations to ReliefMan, who answered correctly almost before the words were out of my mouth.)
These 10 players are the all-time leaders in some career batting feat in the form of “the most X without any Y”:
1. Sam Rice
3. Carl Everett
4.(tie) Ray Schalk
4.(tie) Doc Cramer
4.(tie) Max Bishop
4.(tie) Steve Balboni
8.(tie) Rennie Stennett
8.(tie) Royce Clayton
10. Charlie Hayes
BTW, this began from reading Darren Oliver’s transactions list, as recommended by PP. I saw that Oliver was once traded for Carl Everett, and then I noticed something on Everett’s main page, which led to this quiz. (This is not a hint.)
Is it the most sacrifice flies without a sacrifice bunt in a season?
Josh — Sorry, that’s not it. For one thing, SF were not a separate stat during Sam Rice’s career; if they were counted at all, they were grouped in with SH.
Most hits in the postseason with 0 HR?
(Actually 0 XBH, considering the totals are so low.)
My PI search shows that you are correct. They all had at least 10 or more hits without an XBH.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Sorry, ReliefMan — you deserved all-caps and exclamation points, but my dismal record of stumping the readers put a damper on my response.
My next quiz will be a completely random list of 5 players with nothing in common whatsoever, not even the same sport.
And someone will still come up with an answer within 3 guesses.
But — well done, ReliefMan!!! These are, indeed, the players with 10 or more postseason hits, all of them singles.
Sam Rice led the way with 19 hits. I can’t believe none was a triple!
And I thought I was onto something: Sam Rice has the most 30+ doubles seasons without ever having a 40+ one (10 such seasons, all consecutive!).
Sadly, I don’t think Steve Balboni is going to show up on any list like that.