"What did the Rays see in Belnome that made him worth a 40-man roster spot? The answer: a little bit of everything." (RaysColoredGlasses.com, Robbie Knopf, 4/14)

Vincent Belnome (born March 11, 1988 in Coatesville, PA) is a former professional baseball infielder. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Rays. Vince made his pro debut in 2009 and reached the majors for a brief stay in 2014.

Belnome set his high school's record for career average with a .490 mark. As a freshman at West Virginia, he hit .355/.464/.516 with 40 runs scored in 39 games before a season-ending knee injury. As a sophomore, he batted .377/.442/.532 with 58 runs scored and 66 RBI in 56 games. He tied for 6th in the Big East in average. His junior year, he produced at a .418/.519/.648 rate with 66 runs scored and 84 RBI in 55 games. He led the Big East in RBI, 6th-most in D-I ball, and was 4th in the Big East in average. He was not All-Conference as Pitt's Chris Sedon was chosen at second base.

Belnome was selected by the San Diego Padres in the 28th round of the 2009 amateur draft. He had a good pro debut with the Eugene Emeralds (.297/.431/.500, 10 homers, 52 walks, 53 runs scored in 65 games) and Fort Wayne Wizards (.500/.556/.656, 10 RBI in 10 games). He fielded .925 at second base and .971 at third between the two stops. He paced the Northwest League in walks, was three homers shy of leader Gerardo Avila and was named to the NWL All-Star team at second base.

The Pennsylvanian began 2010 with the Lake Elsinore Storm and finished at .273/.397/.436 with 102 walks and 16 homers in 135 games. He advanced to Double A in 2011 and Triple A in 2012, remaining at that level in 2013 after he left the Padres' organization for the Tampa Bay Rays as part of a minor league trade.

He was MVP of the Durham Bulls in 2013, when he hit .300 with an OBP of .408; he drew 84 walks and scored 77 runs. Vince was named the starting third baseman for the International League in the 2013 Triple A All-Star Game and was a league All-Star as a utility player, since he split hits time among three infield positions.

On the evening of April 3, 2014, the Tampa Bay Rays called Belnome up to replace Sean Rodriguez, who was on paternity leave. Immediately after that evening's game, he was sent back to Triple A, without getting into a game. He came back to Tampa on July 3, when he made his debut as the "0" in Joe Maddon's so-called "Tommy Tutone lineup", a batting order that followed the 8-6-7-5-3-0-9 pattern of the band's 1981 hit single, "867-5309/Jenny". Starting at DH against Max Scherzer of the Detroit Tigers, Vince went 0 for 3 with a pair of strikeouts as Tampa Bay lost, 8-1.

He saw action in 4 games, batting .100 (1-for-10) with a double, an RBI and 3 walks. The next summer, he was released by Tampa in July without making it back up and spent some time in the New York Mets organization, his final season as a professional.

Vince's Bio can also be read in the SABR publication "One Hit Wonders" (2021), edited by Bill Nowlin

(excerpted from Baseball Almanac, BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)