Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Most Pathetic Baseball Teams Ever

Unfortunately, I happen to be a fan of one of them.

San Diego Padres
My team, God help me. Second worse all time won-loss record (Tampa Bay is slightly worse). While they have won a couple of pennants those were more by accident than design. Nine former Padres are in the Hall of Fame but only one, Tony Gwynn, got there for his work as a Padre. The others are from the team's habit of trading away every young player who show budding talent before they start costing money and hiring washed up veterans just before they retire to sell tickets. This year's version may be the most pathetic since the 1970's. It has no pitching, little hitting, and a management mostly interested in shaving pennies.

Washington Nationals
Formerly the Montreal Expos. As a franchise they have been in existence for 44 years and have never won a pennant and only made the playoffs twice. They did finish in first place the year the World Series was wiped out by a strike, which more pathetic than not winning at all. For decades they played in an unfinished stadium (Olympic Stadium) that was also falling apart. This year's version is a quality outfit favored by most to win the pennant.

Philadelphia Phillies
One of the oldest franchises in sports. They date back to 1883 and have been called the Phillies since 1890. No team in sports has lost more games, over ten thousand, than the Phillies. They have had their good years, seven pennants and two World Series in 130 years. But those results would be considered a disappointing decade for the New York Yankees. Their bad years far outweigh the good ones, they finished in first place only once in their first 66 years of existence. They have lost over 1,000 more games than they have won. They have been pretty good recently but history is still a harsh judge.

Cleveland Spiders - Worst Season Ever
You gotta figure on being cursed when your nickname is a creepy arachnid. In 1899, the Spiders ran up a record of 20 wins and 134 loses. Their best pitcher, Jim Hughey, lost 30 games. The owners declared before the season began that they viewed the Spiders as a sideshow and shipped all the quality players to their other team, the St. Louis Browns. Total attendance for the entire season was just 6,088. Attendance was so low teams started refusing to travel to Cleveland; the Spiders ended up playing only 42 home games, winning nine. Their road record was 11-101.

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