Goodbye Eugenio Velez, the Dodgers won’t be the same without you

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Oh, it’s cryin` time again, you’re gonna leave me …

And there goes all that suspense. Guess we’ll just have to find some other oddity to capture our attention should the Dodgers continue their mediocre run next season.

The great wonder is that Eugenio Velez has departed. Not from the planet, of course, but from the Dodgers. Velez has signed a minor-league contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, so at least he’s upgraded to a championship organization.

Ah, but we’ll always have 2011. Someday you can tell your grandchildren about it, who will naturally suspect the old geezer has lost it.

Velez left the Dodgers with his record 0-for-37 hitting streak intact. Most at-bats by a position player in one season without a hit in major-league history. Nothing can ever take that from us.

Of course, the suspense will continue in St. Louis should the Cardinals — like the Dodgers last season — find themselves so ravaged by injury that they need to call Velez up from the minors.

Counting the 0-for-9 he ended his 2010 season with while on the Giants, Velez has another ignoble streak going — an overall record 0-for-46 hitless streak by a position player.

Hopefully, he gets called up while the Cardinals are playing the Dodgers and slices a clean hit in his first at-bat. Eugenio Velez was our pleasant distraction.

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— Steve Dilbeck