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.
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