Are the Phillies the Worst Franchise in Baseball History?
| 26
|
by Tyduffy
The Philadelphia Phillies made history on Sunday, and not the good kind. With a fitting 10-2 drubbing at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals, the Phils became the first franchise in the history of baseball to lose 10,000 games, flouting all previous touchstones of franchise futility. Their "accomplishment" begs the question, are the Phillies the worst franchise in baseball history?
Yes, they have been the worst, and by a long shot.
For the purposes of this analysis, only the original sixteen teams in existence at the beginning of the twentieth century should be relevant. The Rockies, Devil Rays, Padres, and Rangers all have lower winning percentages, but over much shorter sample sizes. The Devil Rays (10 years) and Rockies (15 year) should be thrown out immediately. The Padres (39 years) and the Rangers (47 years) have been around longer, but neither of them even half as long as the Phillies' 124 years. Even so, their winning percentages of .463 and .467 are not that much worse than the Phils' .468.
The first criterion of being declared the worst team of all time has to be that they have been the lowest of the low, and had some truly horrendous seasons. The Phillies have had many. In seasons with at least 140 games played, there have been 23 teams which have produced winning percentages of .300 or less in a single season. Nine of those 23 seasons were by the Philadelphia Phillies. For good measure, they have also had five other 100-loss seasons for a grand total of 14. In contrast, the "loveable losers" in Chicago have only had two 100-loss seasons. The Phillies have had more putrid seasons than any other club.
The second criterion should be a lack of accomplishments. The Phillies match-up here as well. From 1883-1975, the Phillies made exactly two playoff appearances (1915,1950). Ninety-two opportunities, two partial-successes. They have won one championship (1980), which took them 97 years. Since then, they have been working on another streak of 27 years. They had one very good stretch from 1976-1983, where they made 5 playoff appearances. They lost three straight NLCS from 1976-78, won the WS in 1980, and lost the World Series in 1983. (They also lost a playoff in the strike-shortened 1981 to the Montreal Expos). For an eight year-stretch led by HOF Mike Schmidt the Phillies were quite respectable, making five post-season appearances. In the other 116 seasons, they have made just three playoff appearances (the last in 1993).
Compared once again with the Cubbies, the Phils get smoked. The Cubs edge them on World Series victories 2-1. Despite not having appeared since 1945, the Cubs edge them on WS appearances 10-5, National League Pennants 16-5, Playoff Appearances 14-8. One can also compare them in near misses (90 win seasons where they did not qualify), the Cubs had 9 such seasons (including 104 wins in 1909 that wasn't good enough), while the Phillies have had 3 seasons when they did not make the playoffs.
The final stat is just the overall record. The Phillies have the lowest winning percentage of all the original teams (.468), the Cubs are quite respectable at (.536). They have 10,000 losses. The next worse is the Braves at 9,681 and the Cubs at 9,425. They have by far the most losses and it would take decades for somoene to take that away from them.
The Phillies are, by far, the worst franchise in the history of Major League Baseball. Expansion teams can make excuses like bad ballparks, bad owners, and bad markets. The Phillies cannot. They play in a large market, they have had multiple owners, and they have played in five different ballparks. The only thing that has been common is the losing. Philadelphia has the reputation for having the most bitter sports fans in the U.S., and after having to watch this team for over 100 years who can blame them?
