Phillies Join the 10K Club
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While the sporting world has been collectively holdings its breath as Barry Bonds approaches baseball's most hallowed record, the Phillies are making headlines for doing something that has never been done before in professional sports: losing 10,000 games. While journalists and fair-weathered Phillie fans are describing the accomplishment as one of futility, it is also a feat of longevity. I see 10,000 losses as more of a badge of honor, or rite of sport if you will. Sure the team had to play badly enough to lose 10,000 games, but the team has been in existence since 1883! That's right, the Phillies franchise is almost 125 years old. 10,000 losses only seems like a glaring figure because so few professional sports teams have been in existence as long as the Phillies have. Here is a rundown of current MLB teams that arrived before or shortly after the Phillies inception:
San Francisco Giants -- 1883
10,151 - 8,684
Chicago Cubs -- 1876
9,947 - 9,425
Los Angeles Dodgers -- 1884
9,846 - 8,932
St. Louis Cardinals -- 1882
9,806 - 9,158
Atlanta Braves -- 1876
9,662 - 9,681
Cincinnati Reds -- 1882
9,637 - 9,341
Pittsburgh Pirates -- 1882
9,596 - 9,342
Philadelphia Phillies -- 1883
8,810 - 10,000
These W-L totals are up-to-date as of yesterday's games. So, after looking at the teams who began playing baseball about the same time as the Phillies did, you notice that 10,000 losses doesn't look too bad right? Well...not so fast. Sure 10,000 L's is a testament to the Phillies ability to survive as a franchise, but take a look at how close some of the other teams are to 10,000 tallies in the L column. The Braves, the next closest team to 10,000 losses, started playing about 7 years before the Phillies entered the league and have only managed to amass 9,681 losses (aka, the Braves had a head start on losing a lot). What does this mean? I'm glad you asked. In order to join the Phillies in the 10K Loss Club, the Bravos would have to lose almost 2 full seasons of games (162 x 2 = 324). For simplicity sake, let's say that the Braves lose 39 games in the second half of the season and finish with a franchise loss total of 9,720 (still 280 L's away from the Phillies 10K mark). The MOST games Atlanta has lost in the past 17 years has been 97. So, we'll use that 97 losses as a "best case scenario" for the Phillies. I'd like to enter a disclaimer that it is ridiculous to assume that Atlanta will lose 97 games anytime in the near future with the amount of young talent they have, but let's just pretend for the sake of Phillie fans. OK, Atlanta loses 97 games in 2008 and 97 games in 2009 (194 losses in all). Add that 194 to our previous hypothetical total of 9,720 and you get 9914, still 86 L's to go! What I am getting at is that it is absurd to think of any team getting to 10K losses before the next decade. Even then, it is quite a stretch.
Should Phillies fans feel a sense of pride in joining the 10K Loss Club? Sure. The longevity of the Philadelphia Phillies franchise is encouraging and a tribute to the city and its fan base. But, this is still a record that a team has to be pretty darn bad to reach, especially this far ahead of any other team that was around when the Phillies started playing ball.
What about some of the "bad" teams of the modern era? Well, the Kansas City Royals (established in 1969) have a franchise record of 2973-3135. To reach 10,000 losses, the Royals would have to average about 90 losses over 76 more seasons. I know we're assuming the Royals franchise will never improve, but again, we're concerned about numbers here. So projecting the 90 loss seasons for the next 76 years, the Royals will be inducted to the 10K Loss Club sometime around 2083, 114 years after they arrived in Major League Baseball. If and when that happens, the Phillies will at least be able to take solace in the fact that they weren't the fastest team to 10,000 losses. If your curious, it would take the Devil Rays nearly 100 more 90 loss seasons to eclipse the 10K mark. Assuming both the Royals and D-Ray franchises survive, the Devil Rays (established in 1998) would join the Phillies and the Royals in the 10K loss club in 2098 as the fastest team to 10,000 losses (100 years).
Phillies fans, just hold out until the 2080's when you can see a team enter the 10K Loss Club faster than you did.
- Note: This article originally appears at http://thepoweralley.blogspot.com
