William Aloysius "Bill" Bergen (June 13, 1878 – December 19, 1943) was a Major League Baseball catcher in the early 20th century. Bergen was born in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, on June 13, 1878. He played eleven seasons in the National League, three with the Cincinnati Reds and eight with the Brooklyn Dodgers/Superbas.

Bergen was a fine defensive catcher whose dubious claim to fame was his offensive ineptitude. No one played in the major leagues as long as Bill Bergen and hit so poorly. Bergen had 3,028 career at-bats, during which he compiled a batting average of .170, a record low for players with more than 2,500 plate appearances. Pitchers are traditionally the weakest-hitting player in the lineup, yet three hurlers with more than 2,500 plate appearances accrued higher career batting averages than Bergen: Pud Galvin with .201, Bobby Mathews with .203, and Cy Young with .210. Among position players (non-pitchers), the next lowest career batting average is Billy Sullivan with .213 (a remarkable .043 differential). Bergen's career on-base percentage (OBP) was .194—he is the only player with at least 500 at-bats who tallied an OBP under .200. During five of his major league seasons, both his OBP and slugging percentage were under .200. He hit only two home runs in his career—and both were inside-the-park. In 1909, Bergen hit .139, the lowest average in history for a player with the minimum number of plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. Throughout his 3,228 career plate appearances, Bergen was never hit by a pitch, a major league record that stood for over 85 years until broken by Mark Lemke in 1997.

...
Wikipedia