Unsuccessful Franchises
There are eight teams remaining in Major League Baseball that played in the National League in the 19th century through to today: The Atlanta Braves, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the San Francisco Giants, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the St. Louis Cardinals.
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| From MetsStuff |
Even though I’m not a basketball fan, I find myself routing for the New Jersey Nets. They’re on pace to break the record for worst NBA season this year, surpassing the 1972-1973 Philadelphia 76ers. It’s my feeling that I want to keep the city of Philadelphia associated with failure. Prior to the Phillies winning in 2008, the city had gone 25 years without a championship in any major sport. The Phillies are the only professional sports team to have lost 10,000 games: an unprecedented level of failure.
This got me thinking about the other older teams that have been around as long as the Phillies. How are those teams doing?
The Braves will be the next team to lose 10,000 games. They have a record of 9854-9883. That’s good for a .499 winning percentage, which is pretty decent. They actually have a shot at reaching 10,000 wins first. They need to win 96 games next season to get above .500 for their history.
The Giants were the first team to 10,000 wins and the Dodgers, Cubs, and Cardinals have joined them.
The Pirates and the Reds both have winning records. The Reds have 9824 wins to 9548 losses, and the Pirates, even after being a joke for the last two decades, have a record of 9753-9579.
The other old team, the Philadelphia Phillies, are in another class altogether. They hold a record of 9038-10,167. That’s good for a .471 winning percentage which is 26th of active franchises. Only the Padres, the Rangers, and the expansion Rays have a worse winning percentage. If the Phillies went 96-66 every season it would take them 38 years to get over the historical .500 mark.
The Mets aren’t exactly in great shape either, although they’ve won as many championships as the Phillies in roughly a third of the time. They only have a .479 winning percentage and a 3655-3981 record. They have a losing record in all three stadiums they’ve played in, but hopefully they can fix that this year.
Read and comment on this post at The Real Dirty Mets Blog.
Tags: 10000 losses, Baseball, franchise losses, franchise records, losing franchises, losing teams, Mets, Phillies, phillies suck
The Anti-Mets
Many Mets fans would fall into a more doom and gloom mindset than a positive one. Whether that’s because of persistent disappointment, a “younger-brother” mentality associated with the Yankees, the attitude of talk radio hosts, or something else, Mets fans tend to approach the team waiting for the other shoe to drop and the team to fail.
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| From Baseball |
As the self-proclaimed Optimistic Mets Fan, I tend not to take this approach anyway, but I’ve found that this rule is not true across the board. Oddly enough, there are two Mets players that never fail to bring out smiles and optimism; Johan Santana and Jose Reyes.
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| From Baseball |
These two Anti-Mets, more than any other player, bring out positive vibes from Mets fans. Carlos Beltran, despite being very clutch, has the cloud of his strike out against the Cardinals in the 2006 playoffs. David Wright has been considered almost un-clutch by many fans.
Even if it’s not true, when David Wright comes up with a runner on third, many are expecting a strkeout. When Oliver Perez lets up a leadoff double, most fans expect him to walk two following that. Jason Bay hasn’t even played a game yet and you just know many fans are already expecting every opposing runner to score from second on a single to left field.
Reyes is different. When Reyes gets on to lead off an inning, Mets fans give him second base like it’s a foregone conclusion. They expect him to score on any ball hit to the outfield. They expect opposing pitchers to get nervous and possibly balk in runs.
It’s similar for Johan Santana. If it’s an Oliver Perez start, fans are betting the over/under on how many walks he gives up. Or how many foul balls John Maine has. If it’s a close game in the 6th or 7th inning and Pelfrey is pitching and lets up a leadoff single, Mets fans think “Here we go again.” If Santana lets up that same leadoff single even many of the pessimistic fans are just thinking about double plays and are recalculating how many pitches it’ll now take to get the next three guys out to see if Santana can pitch another inning afterwards.
This is the true meaning of the phrase, “As Reyes goes, so do the Mets.” Mets fans expect winning results from Reyes and when they get it they feel the Mets will win. Johan is such a fierce competitor that as fans we’re surprised when the opponents’ bats don’t literally explode under his gaze. It doesn’t matter that the Mets have never pitched a no-hitter; when Johan strikes out the leadoff batter, the first thing we think of is “26 to go.”
This post is also visible at The Real Dirty Mets Blog.
Tags: anti-mets, attitude, Baseball, Johan Santana, Jose Reyes, Mets, optimistic mets fan, positive, Spring Training, winning
Citi Field Borough Race
Metsblog made a post about the possibility of the Mets doing a Citi Field race, similar to the Presidents Race in Washington or the Sausage Race in Milwaukee. I think since Citi Field was built with New York City in mind and the name of the park implies New York City, that it should have the entire city in mind. After all the Mets represent New York baseball and all its history.
My idea, which was inspired by a segment I heard Joe and Evan do on the midday WFAN show, is to have a 5-party race including something from each borough of New York.
In this Borough Race:
Queens would be represented by Mr. Met.
Staten Island would be represented by the Staten Island Ferry.
Manhattan would be represented by a yellow taxi cab.
Brooklyn would be represented by Sandy the Seagull, the Brooklyn Cyclones mascot.
The Bronx would be represented by a Zoo animal. An orange Cheetah would work well.
The alternative would be to represent the Bronx with a pinstriped New York Highlander baseball player that would play the Teddy Roosevelt role and never, ever, win the race.
You can also read this post at The Real Dirty Mets Blog.
Tags: boroughs, Citi Field, citi field race, five boroughs, new york, new york baseball history, new york city, presidents race, sausage race
New York Mets Memorabilia of the 1970s
I came across some old Mets (and generic Hall of Fame and Yankees) stuff this off-season. I scanned a few of my favorites to share. This is the first set. Here’s the scoreboard shot after Seaver set the NL record with seven consecutive 200 K seasons.
Here’s the back of the 1974 Mets schedule. Box Seats for $4? I’ll take it.
Here’s the front of the schedule, with the rarely seen Lady Met.
Wayne Garrett and his wife Donna scouting the competition. Apparently the Mets and Phillies used to have their wives play a couple of innings of softball occasionally. Seems like a cool idea.
This post is also viewable on The Real Dirty Mets Blog
Tags: 1970s, 1974, 1975, lady met, Mets, nostalgia, official schedule, Shea Stadium, Spring Training, tom seaver, wayne garrett, wives game, wives softball