The Man Who Couldn’t Hit

A piece I wrote for Pitchers & Poets about Frank Fernandez, a forgotten backup catcher and greatest sub-.200 hitter in baseball history.  Fernandez was a victim of baseball’s longstanding infatuation with batting average, and the human need for categorization.  Once, when reporters gathered to speak to him after a game, he asked them, “Are you sure you want to talk to a .130 hitter?”