The problem with all this "Only the CUBS" mentality is that everybody is working off their "recent memory", just as erik alluded to in one of his earlier posts, without much regard for the history of game and the teams that play it. This is compounded by the fact many of you have a much shorter "recent memory" than others do. All that being said, I took some time to run some numbers, and here's what I came up with....... The CUBS have long held the moniker of "lovable losers", and I readily admit, the last 60 years or so have been pretty bleak, throughout the history of baseball, the CUBS are not anywhere near being the epitome of futility that many make them out to be. Taking the lifetime winning percentages of only the pre-expansion teams........ 1876 thru 2009 World Series
team W L pct PA W L
New York Yankees 9577 7294 0.568 48 27 13
San Francisco Giants 10348 8886 0.538 22 5 12
Los Angeles Dodgers 9652 8756 0.524 26 6 12
Boston Red Sox 8730 8160 0.517 20 7 4
Chicago Cubs 10165 9606 0.514 16 2 8
Cleveland Indians 8635 8269 0.511 10 2 3
St. Louis Cardinals 9239 8910 0.509 24 10 7
Pittsburgh Pirates 9524 9275 0.507 14 5 2
Chicago White Sox 8532 8339 0.506 9 3 2
Detroit Tigers 8564 8356 0.506 12 4 6
Cincinnati Reds 9420 9369 0.501 12 5 4
Atlanta Braves 9854 9883 0.499 20 3 6
Oakland A's 8151 8682 0.484 23 9 5
Minnesota Twins 8138 8748 0.482 13 3 3
Baltimore Orioles 8011 8843 0.475 11 3 4
Philadelphia Phillies 9008 10168 0.470 12 2 5
....... the CUBS come in 5th. That's top third of the pack. Yeah, I know they haven't made it to the World Series as often as the fans would hope, but hey, being in the top third ain't chopped liver !! Below are what I consider to be the 50 worst seasons ever compiled in major league baseball (* denotes expansion teams).............. Team W L Pct
1890 Pittsburgh Pirates 23 113 0.169
1897 St. Louis Cardinals 29 102 0.221
1916 Philadelphia As 36 117 0.235
1935 Boston Braves 38 115 0.248
1962 * New York Mets 40 120 0.250
1904 Washington Senators 38 113 0.252
1898 St. Louis Cardinals 39 111 0.260
2003 Detroit Tigers 43 119 0.265
1952 Pittsburgh Pirates 41 112 0.268
1939 St. Louis Browns 41 111 0.270
1909 Washington Senators 42 110 0.276
1942 Philadelphia Phillies 42 109 0.278
1932 Boston Red Sox 43 111 0.279
1941 Philadelphia Phillies 43 111 0.279
1928 Philadelphia Phillies 43 109 0.283
1915 Philadelphia As 43 109 0.283
1911 Boston Braves 44 107 0.291
1909 Boston Braves 45 108 0.294
1911 St. Louis Browns 45 107 0.296
1939 Philadelphia Phillies 45 106 0.298
1945 Philadelphia Phillies 46 108 0.299
1937 St. Louis Browns 46 108 0.299
1937 Philadelphia As 46 108 0.299
1938 Philadelphia Phillies 45 105 0.300
1926 Boston Red Sox 46 107 0.301
1910 St. Louis Browns 47 107 0.305
1961 Philadelphia Phillies 47 107 0.305
1965 * New York Mets 50 112 0.309
1920 Philadelphia As 48 106 0.312
1963 * New York Mets 51 111 0.315
2004 * Arizona Diamondbacks 51 111 0.315
1906 Boston Red Sox 49 105 0.318
1969 * Montreal Expos 52 110 0.321
1969 * San Diego Padres 52 110 0.321
1940 Philadelphia Phillies 50 103 0.327
1996 Detroit Tigers 53 109 0.327
1964 * New York Mets 53 109 0.327
1979 * Toronto Blue Jays 53 109 0.327
1917 Pittsburgh Pirates 51 103 0.331
1998 * Florida Marlins 54 108 0.333
1979 Oakland As 54 108 0.333
1977 * Toronto Blue Jays 54 107 0.335
1988 Baltimore Orioles 54 107 0.335
1976 * Montreal Expos 55 107 0.340
2002 * Tampa Bay Devilrays 55 106 0.342
2002 Detroit Tigers 55 106 0.342
2003 * Texas Rangers 56 106 0.346
1970 Chicago white sox 56 106 0.346
2005 * Kansas City Royals 56 106 0.346
1973 * Washington Senators 57 105 0.352 Notice the complete absence of the Chicago CUBS from this list. The CUBS have been bad far too often for our tastes, but they are rarely epically bad. In fact, in their 134 year existence they have only had 2 seasons with as many as 100 losses. Here's a listing of all the franchises and the number of 100 loss seasons they've had........ Team #
Houston Astros 0
Los Angeles/Anaheim 0
Colorado Rockies 0
Cincinnati Reds 1
New York/San Francisco 1
Florida Marlins 1
Arizona Diamondbacks 1
Milwaukee Brewers 1
CUBS 2
New York Yankees 2
Brooklyn/Los Angeles 2
Chicago white sox 3
Toronto Bluejays 3
Tampa Bay Devilrays 3
Montreal/Washington 4
Seattle Mariners 4
St. Louis Cardinals 4
Kansas City Royals 4
Cleveland Indians 5
San Diego Padres 5
New York Mets 6
Washington/Minnesota 6
Washington/Texas 6
Detroit Tigers 6
Pittsburgh Pirates 7
Boston Red Sox 7
Milwaukee/St. Louis/Baltimore 10
Boston/Milwaukee/Atlanta 13
Philadelphia Philllies 14
Philadelphia/K.C./Oakland 17 Hey, what do you know ??? In the top third again !! What about prolonged periods of suckage ? Well, I considered that, too. The following is a listing of the worst decade of baseball committed by each of the franchises.......... Years Team W L Pct
1936-1945 Philadelphia Phillies 511 1016 0.335
1904-1913 Boston Braves 539 982 0.354
1923-1932 Boston Red Sox 544 988 0.355
1937-1946 Philadelphia As 549 983 0.358
1901-1910 Washington Senators (Twins) 549 936 0.370
1946-1955 St. Louis Browns 576 963 0.374
1904-1913 St. Louis Cardinals 592 930 0.389
1904-1913 Brooklyn Dodgers 594 924 0.391
1998-2007 Tampa Bay Devilrays 645 972 0.399
1996-2005 Detroit Tigers 652 966 0.403
1969-1978 San Diego Padres 651 959 0.404
1962-1971 New York Mets 660 957 0.408
1677-1686 Seattle Mariners 641 924 0.410
1997-2006 Kansas City Royals 666 951 0.412
1925-1934 Cincinnati Red 649 903 0.418
1961-1970 Washington Senators (Rangers) 677 936 0.420
2000-2009 Pittsburgh Pirates 681 936 0.421
1926-1935 Chicago white sox 643 881 0.422
1957-1966 CUBS 680 900 0.430
1969-1978 Milwaukee Brewers 707 905 0.439
1962-1971 Houston Astros 710 908 0.439
1983-1992 Cleveland Indians 711 909 0.439
2000-2009 Montreal/Washington 711 908 0.439
1908-1917 New York Yankees 686 838 0.450
1977-1986 Toronto Blue Jays 711 850 0.455
1997-2006 Colorado Rockies 745 875 0.460
1968-1977 Anaheim Angels 744 868 0.462
1976-1985 San Francisco Giants 734 834 0.468
1998-2007 Florida Marlins 758 861 0.468
2000-2009 Arizona Diamondbacks 805 815 0.497 Didn't quite make the top one third on this list..... but we're close. Look, I realize that this is unscientific, cherry picked, random, arbitrary and incorrigible, but it should make the point that if you wanted to demonstrate some real hardcore suckage in baseball you could find some teams that are a whole lot worse than the CUBS. Only the CUBS ??? NOT !!