More Losses Than Wins

By Bob Warrington

On July 15, 2007, the Philadelphia Phillies achieved everlasting ignominy by losing their 10,000 game in franchise history, becoming the first club in any professional sport in North America to do so. On that date, the Phillies’ all-time record stood at 8,810 – 10,000, a winning percentage of .468. Having played baseball for 124 years, it’s not surprising that the Phillies racked up thousands of wins and losses, but the imbalance between the two figures is a testament to the many bad—some REALLY bad—seasons the team and its fans have suffered through over the years.

From 1883—the Phillies’ first year—through 1921, the team kept its overall record at or above .500 at least some of the time. The Phillies fielded some pretty good teams along the way, including a pennant winner in 1915. In 1922, however, the Phillies slipped below .500 permanently, fated to chase thereafter that true standard of ordinariness—having at least as many wins as losses as a franchise. The truly awful years of the late teens through the late forties cemented the Phillies’ fate as the major league franchise with the worst overall record, and ensured that for at least the next century the team would always be looking up to try to reach the break-even point between victories and defeats. One need only know that the Phillies had exactly one winning season from 1918-48 to begin to appreciate the “How?” of reaching the 10,000-defeat nadir.

Of course, things have gotten better for the Phillies in more recent years. They haven’t lost 100 games in a season since 1961, and while the team went to the World Series once in its first 66 years, the Phillies have been there three times in the last 27 years.

The size of the Phillies’ all-time win-loss deficit, nevertheless, is enormous. Think of it this way. The Phillies overall record on July 15, 2007 stood at 8,810-10,000. To get back to .500 as quickly as possible, the club would have to go 162-0 during the regular season for seven years in a row and then win the first 56 games in a row during the eighth season. The Phillies have a long way to go to climb out of the win-loss hole they’ve dug for themselves over 124 years of playing baseball.

What about the Philadelphia Athletics all-time win-loss record? The A’s lasted only 54 years and never reached the 10,000 figure in games played. From 1901-54, the Philadelphia Athletics played 8,132 games. The club’s final win-loss record stands at 3,886-4,246.

That the Philadelphia Athletics lost more games than they won shouldn’t come as a surprise to any true A’s fan. Connie Mack’s nine American League pennants were offset by 17 last-place finishes. Mack’s 3,776 victories as a manager were surpassed by the 4,025 defeats he suffered. The A’s fortunes never regained a lofty position after the Second Dynasty period (1929-31).

At the end of the 1940 season, the A’s overall record stood almost exactly at .500—2,991 wins and 2,989 defeats. The best years already were in the past at that point in the franchise’s history, and some truly awful years lay ahead. The 1940 club, for example, won 54 games while losing 100 to drop the A’s all-time record to near .500.

It was during the 1941 season that the Philadelphia A’s descended permanently below .500. The club went 64-90 that season to bring its overall record to 3,055-3,079—a winning percentage of .496. In the 13 seasons the Athletics played in Philadelphia after 1941, the club had only four winning seasons. As the losses mounted faster than wins, the A’s overall winning percentage dropped further below .500. It held at .481 after the 1953 season, but a 51-103 record in the club’s final year of 1954 pushed the A’s overall all-time winning percentage down to its final resting place of .478.

It is interesting to note that the Phillies permanently dipped below .500 in their 39th season (1922), while the Athletics achieve that dubious distinction in the 40th season (1941). A remarkable parallel in both teams’ journey toward enduring mediocrity.

Take heart, A’s fans! That final .478 winning percentage is .010 higher than the Phillies’ winning percentage figure on July 15, 2007 when the club endured its 10,000 loss. The Philadelphia Athletics’ place in history is frozen in time, moreover, and the club won’t ever lose 10,000 games.