The Worst Baseball Players Ever

Wow, where to begin. I suppose we should limit this list to MLB players. And we shouldn't forget that you have to be pretty good to make it to the bigs. But there have been some pretty bad numbers put up by players who had fairly lengthy careers. I came up with a few names but there are many, many others.

I grew up watching the Rangers, so I cannot forget about players like (current USC coach) Chad Kreuter, Jeff Kunkel, and Jeff Huson. But these guys look like all-stars when compared to the cream-of-the-crap.

Let's take a look at the career of Bill Bergen. I know he played a long time ago...but man he was bad. The guy hit an astonishing .168 from 1903-1911. That's lower than my average of coolness (believed to be roughly .175, where as Brad Pitt would be somewhere around .900-.910, if you believe the sabermetrics). Bergen also managed to only hit one homerun. That happens to be the same career total as Randy Johnson, who looks like a disheveled Big Bird swinging a broom stick, so I can only imagine what Bergen looked like.

How about Todd Van Poppel? Are there pitchers with worse ERAs? Sure. But they probably weren't touted as the next Nolan Ryan. Van Poppel came out of Arlington, TX's Martin High School as a first round phenom. He ended up having a pretty long career and had a few years of success out the bullpen, then he reverted back to his earlier form . I've seen better WHIPs in an 80s music video.

I love the guy, but Bob Uecker had a pretty rough career. He had a .200 career average and topped out 30 RBI for his season high. Fortunately, he's hilarious and great broadcaster. He's now in the Hall of Fame as a broadcaster and people still talk about his hilarious induction speech.

And we cannot forget about Henry Rowengartner.

I think everyone knows this cautionary tale. The happy-go-luck kid slipped on a ball and broke his arm. His ligaments healed very tightly and he became an instant phenom with a +100 mph fastball. The Cubs scooped him up and rushed him to The Show. He did pretty well for a while, but unfortunately he slipped on a ball again and his arm went back to its normal 8 year old girl status. Of course he was in the middle of a crucial game and facing the league's most feared hitter, Butch Heddo, when his arm reverted. He improvised and tossed an amazing underhand Eephus pitch, struck out Heddo, and locked up the series for the Cubs. Unfortunately, he never did regain his arm strength. Over the next few years, he bounced around to a few teams and later tested positive for multiple controlled substances. In 2003, he had his right arm purposely broken again in an attempt to make a comeback...but it wasn't meant to be. His right arm is now like a liberal arts degree, essentially useless. I heard he's been married three times and is selling cars in the Springfield area, he's still only 28 years old. The lesson is don't slip on a baseball for a second time.