[UKSubs]

Now Arch Reilly is quite the bad player, but I have seen worse. Let me introduce you to 3B John Karst. A lefty hitter and a righty thrower, Karst was a solid defender (Rating of B, Fielding Percentage of 1.000) with no bat whatsoever. His only rating was in Avoiding Ks for most of his career ranging from 8 to 10.

Karst's career started in 1917 as the 9th round selection of the defending World Champion Chicago Cubs, the greatest dynasty in my 100 year recreation. He originally had some value with a 3 in Doubles, but that soon disappeared. Being the only A Level 3B in the Cubs organization, he hit a modest .267/.278/.346 in 154 games. This was to be the high point of his career. Obviously, the New York Yankees saw something in this promising third basemen, as he was one of the throw-ins that the Cubs gave up to reacquire CF Ty Cobb. (The season earlier, Cobb was traded by the Cubs to the Yankees for SS Tex McDonald and some spare parts. This deal was being reversed.)

As a Yankee farmhand in 1918, Karst only saw action in 31 games hitting .175/.205/.225. While a lesser man would have quit, Karst was undeterred and came back to play for the Yankee organization in 1919. The A Ball team of the Yankees showed far better judgment in evaluating Karst's meager skills, as he had 1 hitless At Bat in 3 games.

On August 19, 1919, Karst was called to the Active Roster, while 3B Pete Kilduff was demoted to AAA. Obviously, he must have had some amazing blackmail over the owners of the Yankees to obtain such a promotion over more valuable players, like anyone else in the Yankee system. Kilduff was a useful hitter with a 5 in AVG and 4 in BB and Doubles, but was a subpar fielder with a D Rating. Kilduff could also man 2B and SS with better skills, but nevertheless was sent down for Karst.

Karst went 0 for 6 in 1919 in 3 games played. Amazingly, Karst managed to score a run and for the only time before 1926, struck out. 1920 starts with John Karst on the active roster. The Yankees catch a lucky break through the first four months of the season, as starter Mike Mowry stays healthy. On July 31, Mowry goes down and Karst steps in to fill the breach. Much like the season before, Karst is inept at the plate going 0 for 48 in his absence, though somehow he manages to score 4 runs.

1921 is a similar story to 1920, as Karst spends most of the season on the pine, waiting for poor Mike Mowery, now 37 to step aside so Karst can really show his skills. Well, on September 2, 1921, the Yankees show they have no more patience for a third baseman who can post a decent batting average and ship Mowery to AAA. Karst is handed the starting job. On September 28, 1921, an amazing event happens, John Karst gets his first Major League hit off of Pete Sims. For the season, Karst goes 1 for 94 with 4 runs scored and 6 RBI. For his career to date, he is 1 for 148, which is good for a .007 Batting Average. Undetered by such numbers, the Yankees bring him back for the start of 1922.

On April 9th, the Yankees are rewarded for their investment. The Philadelphia Athletics, certain that John Karst's 1 for 148 start to his career is a fluke trade THREE players for him. C Sam Brenegan (who himself only hit .018 in 721 AB), CF Ed Johnson, who was a mediocre prospect that never played in the Major Leagues and SS Harry Daubert, who like Johnson was a mediocre prospect that never played in the Major Leagues were sent to the Yankees for John Karst.

This begins the nomad phase of Karst's career, as Karst was traded EVERY YEAR between 1922 and 1930. Karst only saw limited action for the Athletics in his first tour of duty, going 0 for 31 with 1 RBI.

On July 15, 1923, the Athletics wisen up and package 3B John Karst with C George Gilham and ship them off to the St. Louis Browns for SS Jesse Baker. Gilham would never play in the Major Leagues. Baker was another 0 player, going 2 for 193 in his 7 year career.

But Karst is really the star of this story. Karst had a year which included more at bats and less hits than Baker's entire career. Mostly playing every day for the St. Louis Browns after the trade, Karst went 3 for 199 with 11 RBI and scoring 2 runs.

Now, it is 1924 and there are two baseball teams in St. Louis, the Cardinals and the Browns. The Browns started the year using Karst as their starter at the hot corner, but the Cardinals realized that Karst was the last piece of their championship puzzle. On April 21, 1924, the Cardinals sent SS Del Wertz to the crosstown Browns for Karst, C George Gilham and CF Bud Heine. Heine, like Gilham, never made it to the Majors. Wertz was 36 at the time of the deal and was another 0 player, having a marginal career.

The real impact of this move was that Don Rader, a quality hitter with a tin glove was pushed aside for the ultimate glove man, John Karst. Karst took full advantage of his opportunity to set some records. Karst went 5 for 432 which equals a batting average of .012, which was better than his career batting average of .011. He also scored 11 runs and drove in 16. Along with the 5 hits, these were all career highs. Amazingly in 432 AB, Karst never struck out.

A recap of 1925 to 1928, which are very similar and not very interesting. Karst was traded every season between the Browns, Cardinals and Athletics, never getting more than 86 at bats in a season and going 4 for 197 during this period.

On May 30, 1929, the Cardinals sent Karst back to the Browns for another 0 player and a worthless prospect. After racking a good number of unproductive at bats, August 28th rolls around. Karst manages to hit a Home Run off of John Bogart of the Philadelphia Athletics. One would assume that two were friends from one of Karst's stints as an Athletic, but to show that the home run was legitimate, he hits 2 more in September for a grand total of 3 on the year and for his career. These were his only extra base hits in his career which spanned 1389 AB. Aside from the home runs, Karst managed a single, which allowed him to go 4 for 210 for the season.

Karst finished out his career in 1931 with the St. Louis Browns having never won a championship or hitting double or a triple or stealing a base or even drawing a walk. Towards the end of his career he did strike out a good deal more, leaving him 126 career strike outs. Finally, Karst ended up with a .013 batting average with 18 hits in 1389 AB. Quite the sad story about the worst hitter I've ever seen.

Arch Reilly did his part to make history. The 1924 Tigers with Reilly as their backup Shortstop won the World Series in 7 games over the New York Giants. Reilly went 0 for 1 in pivotal game 7 and played a little 3B. In 1925, the Tigers felt that they should spot the rest of the American League a positional player and let Reilly play third base the entire season. Reilly went 8 for 459, good for a batting average of .017. That combined with the season ending injury of Superstar SS Charlie Hollocher led the Tigers to fall to the worst record in 1925.

I hope someone found this as interesting to read as I did to write.