What is the strongest franchise in baseball right now? I don’t mean which team has the best team this year or last year, but just. . .what are the top franchises?
I actually had a reason why I needed to know this. . .I won’t explain it right now because it’s out of sequence. But I was doing some other research for which I needed a number to represent the strength of a franchise at any moment, based not on their record that season but on their performance over a period of years. How to do that?
I’ve done this before, with minor variations. Each team’s “Current Multi-Year Wins”, for the first year of the franchise’s history is 350 + 3 times their wins in their first season. Their “Current Multi-Year Losses”, for the first year, is 700 + 3 times their first year’s losses.
After the first year, the Current Multi-Year Wins for each year are .7 Times the previous year’s number, plus three times the most recent season. . .losses the same. Thus, the San Diego Padres, after the 2005 season, had a multi-year cumulative record expressed as 779-836 (actually, 779.4927 wins, 836.2749 losses), and in 2006 they finished 88-74. That improved their 2006 Multi-Year record to 810-807 (actually, 809.6449 wins, 807.3925 losses.)
In 2007 they had another good season (89-74), which improved their multi-year record to 834-787 (actually, 833.7514 wins, 787.1747 losses.)
By this simple method we can get objective if slightly arbitrary answers to a series of questions to which it is fun to have answers, such as:
What is the strongest franchise in baseball?
What was the strongest franchise in baseball ten years ago, or twenty years ago, or in 1932?
What is the weakest franchise in baseball?
What was the weakest franchise ten years ago, or whatever?
What was the strongest franchise ever?
What was the weakest franchise ever?
At what moment in their history were the Boston/Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves strongest?
At what moment were the Cleveland Indians weakest?
Etc. Another issue that could be settled using this method is “what is a dynasty?” I didn’t really get heavily into that, but one could use this method to fix objective criteria for a dynasty.
OK, let’s get into the filthy details. . . .
1) What is the strongest franchise in baseball?
We’ll start tracking this when the National League started, in 1876. In the first year of the League the champions were the Chicago Cubs. . .the Chicago team now known as the Cubs, so the first title holders were the Chicago Cubs:
1876 Chicago Cubs Strength: .405
The second title was won by the Boston team. . .the franchise now known as the Braves. . .and so the Braves ascended into the top spot. The Braves. . .let us call them the Braves. . .the Braves defended their title in 1878, and in 1879, although finishing second to Providence, performed well enough to hold their position as the strongest team, based on multi-year performance. By 1879 their multi-year winning percentage had gone up to .523:
1876 Chicago Cubs Strength: .405
1877-1879 Boston Braves Strength .523 (1879)
In 1880 the Chicago team had a great season under Cap Anson, going 67-17 to reclaim their title as baseball’s strongest franchise. They repeated as league champions in 1881 and 1882, and remained the strongest franchise in baseball through 1883:
1876 Chicago Cubs Strength: .405
1877-1879 Boston Braves Strength .523 (1879)
1880-1883 Chicago Cubs Strength: .613 (1882)
By 1883 there was a rival league, the American Association, but, of course, the American Association teams started out behind, and it would take them a couple of years to catch up. In 1884 the Providence Grays won 84 games (84-28), with Old Hoss Radbourn winning more than two-thirds of those, and the Grays—who had been second the previous year, behind the Cubs—moved into the position of the game’s top franchise:
1876 Chicago Cubs Strength: .405
1877-1879 Boston Braves Strength .523 (1879)
1880-1883 Chicago Cubs Strength: .613 (1882)
1884 Providence Grays Strength: .637
Not only the strongest team then, but the strongest team up to then. In 1885, however, Anson’s men finished an astonishing 87-25, and forged back into the top spot. Having battled back to the number one position, which they would hold for three years:
1876 Chicago Cubs Strength: .405
1877-1879 Boston Braves Strength .523 (1879)
1880-1883 Chicago Cubs Strength: .613 (1882)
1884 Providence Grays Strength: .637
1885-1887 Chicago Cubs Strength: .678 (1886)
By the late 1880s the St. Louis team in the American Association, under Charles Comiskey, had emerged as a serious rival to the pre-eminence of the Cubs, beating them in one series of post-season exhibitions, and battling them to a disputed draw in another. By 1888 the St. Louis team—we will call them the Cardinals, which is what they are now called—had become baseball’s strongest unit, a position they would hold until 1891:
1876 Chicago Cubs Strength: .405
1877-1879 Boston Braves Strength .523 (1879)
1880-1883 Chicago Cubs Strength: .613 (1882)
1884 Providence Grays Strength: .637
1885-1887 Chicago Cubs Strength: .678 (1886)
1888-1891 St. Louis Cardinals Strength: .644 (1889)
Now that you see what I’m doing I’ll cut it to the last two champions. In the early 1890s the Boston Bees, with Kid Nichols, Bobby Lowe and Hugh Duffy, were baseball’s premier organization:
1888-1891 St. Louis Cardinals Strength: .644 (1889)
1892-1895 Boston Braves Strength: .631 (1893)
They were supplanted by the most famous team of the 19th century, the Old Orioles of John McGraw, Wilbert Robinson, Dan Brouthers and Hughie Jennings:
1892-1895 Boston Braves Strength: .631 (1893)
1896-1897 Baltimore Orioles Strength: .630 (1897)
But while the Orioles were a powerhouse in those years, the Braves stayed right with them, going 93-39 in 1897, then winning 102 games (102-47) in 1898 to re-claim the top position—which they would hold through several embattled seasons. Although the Braves (then usually called the Beaneaters) never won the league after 1898 (until 1914), the Orioles were contracted out of existence, in one of the league’s screwier moves, and no other real powerhouse franchise emerged for several years, allowing the Braves to hold on to the top spot. The NL shrunk from twelve franchises to eight in 1900, and the American League launched as a major league in 1901, re-shuffling the talent deck:
1892-1895 Boston Braves Strength: .631 (1893)
1896-1897 Baltimore Orioles Strength: .630 (1897)
1898-1901 Boston Braves Strength: .645 (1898)
Finally, under the leadership of the great Honus Wagner, the Pittsburgh Pirates emerged as baseball’s strongest franchise:
1898-1901 Boston Braves Strength: .645 (1898)
1902-1905 Pittsburgh Pirates Strength: .623 (1903)
Fun fact for the day: Pittsburgh, at that time, was usually spelled “Pittsburg”. The “h” was added during World War I to make it less German-looking. Anyway, the strength of the Pirate franchise remained over .600 until 1912, and actually went UP after 1905, reaching a peak of .649 when the Pirates won the World Championship in 1909. But the Cubs, with Johnny Kling, Three Finger Brown, and the immortal double-play combination of Tinker, Evers and Chance, won 116 games in 1906—and continued to win huge numbers of games for years after that:
1902-1905 Pittsburgh Pirates Strength: .623 (1903)
1906-1911 Chicago Cubs Strength: .662 (1910)
One of the questions I posed in the intro was “What was the strongest team ever?”. Well, in terms of their multi-year winning percentage—their “established” winning percentage, we could call it—the highest percentage since 1900 was reached was by the Cubs in 1910. The Cubs had been slightly higher in the mid-1880s, but that was when baseball was still getting organized. I have pointed out before, in defending the Hall of Fame selections of Tinker, Evers and Chance, that this team won more games, over a period of years, than any other team, period—and if we don’t credit that to Tinker, Evers and Chance, who do we credit it to? The six years that they held the top spot (1906 through 1911) was also a record at the time.
In the mid-1900s, when the Pirates and Cubs were bashing each other for the title of baseball’s greatest team, the New York Giants under John McGraw were the third team in the mix; they were pretty good, too. The Giants took the National League with 99 wins in 1911, and McGraw claimed the top spot for the first time with 103 wins in 1912:
1906-1911 Chicago Cubs Strength: .662 (1910)
1912-1913 New York Giants Strength .642 (1913)
The American League franchises, of course, had started out far behind in 1901, but beginning in 1910 they were winning the World Series almost every year. The Philadelphia Athletics, under Connie Mack, became the first American League team to reach .600 in 1911, and by 1914 they had claimed the top spot:
1912-1913 New York Giants Strength .642 (1913)
1914 Philadelphia Athletics Strength: .625
The irony being that the A’s reached the top spot in what Connie Mack said was his unhappiest season ever. His stars were all complaining about money. Some of them had jumped to the Federal League, and there have long been rumors that the 1914 team may have thrown the World Series, which the team had won in 1910, 1911 and 1913. That winter, anyway, Connie Mack began selling off his stars—a process which, getting ahead of ourselves, would very quickly reduce the A’s from baseball’s best franchise to baseball’s worst. In 1915 the Red Sox, with Babe Ruth pitching, won their second World Series in four years, and moved into the top spot, which they would defend through 1918:
1914 Philadelphia Athletics Strength: .625
1915-1918 Boston Red Sox Strength: .596 (1915)
The Red Sox won the World Series in 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918, and they were the best team in baseball during that period. But the team, we should note, was really not tremendously dominant. Their multi-year winning percentages, beginning in 1915, were .596, .594, .594, and .594. A .594 winning percentage—before then and since—would very often have ranked them third in baseball. But at that time nobody was better.
In 1919 the Red Sox began to fall apart, finishing under .500, and John McGraw’s men, although finishing second, reclaimed the mantle of the strongest franchise. I am going to stop re-printing the word “Strength”:
1915-1918 Boston Red Sox .596 (1915)
1919 New York Giants .593
They were replaced in 1920 by the Chicago White Sox—the Black Sox:
1919 New York Giants .593
1920 Chicago White Sox .587
As I have noted before, the overall strength of that team, the Black Sox, has been tremendously overstated by many historians. They were a good team, the best in baseball for a moment, but their multi-year accomplishments and multi-year record, in historical context, are of modest stature. In any case, that team was no longer competitive after most of their stars were kicked out of baseball, and John McGraw moved back to the top for the third (and final) time:
1919 New York Giants .593
1920 Chicago White Sox .587
1921-1925 New York Giants .604 (1923)
By 1922 the top two franchises were the two New York franchises, the Giants and the Yankees, who by now had Babe Ruth. The Yankees faltered in the mid-1920s, however, and when the Giants finished under .500 in 1926 it was actually the Pittsburgh Pirates, with Paul Waner and Kiki Cuyler, who stumbled into the vaccum for one year:
1921-1925 New York Giants .604 (1923)
1926 Pittsburgh Pirates .567
In 1927, of course, Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs, Lou Gehrig drove in 175 runs, and the Yankees were one of the greatest teams of all time:
1926 Pittsburgh Pirates .567
1927-1929 New York Yankees .623 (1928)
Many people would assume that the Yankees, with Ruth and Gehrig, just moved into the top spot and stayed there, but actually this in not exactly what happened. In fact, in the ten years that Ruth and Gehrig were both in the Yankee lineup (1925-1934) the Yankees won only four league championships, not that four league championships is anything to sneeze at, but the team in that era was not as dominant as they would later become. The were ousted in 1930 by Connie Mack’s re-built Philadelphia A’s:
1927-1929 New York Yankees .623 (1928)
1930-1932 Philadelphia A’s .643 (1931)
The Yankees stayed near the top spot, and when Connie Mack again began having financial troubles and again began selling off his stars, the Yankees crept back onto the top rung. And this time they stayed there for a long time:
1927-1929 New York Yankees .623 (1928)
1930-1932 Philadelphia A’s .643 (1931)
1933-1943 New York Yankees .660 (1939)
Joe McCarthy’s Yankees won the World Series in 1936, 1937, 1938 and 1939, and their post-1939 multi-year winning percentage (.660) is the second-highest since 1900, behind only Frank Chance’s 1910 Chicago Cubs. The eleven years that the Yankees held the top spot was the longest, at that time, that any team had ever been in that position. By the early 1940s, however, Branch Rickey had built the Cardinals into a National League powerhouse comparable in strength to the Yankees, and when the Yankees slipped a little bit during the War, the Cardinals seized the moment to surge ahead:
1933-1943 New York Yankees .660 (1939)
1944-1947 St. Louis Cardinals .647 (1944)
In 1933 the Yankees, although finishing second behind the Washington Senators, had played well enough to move into the top spot based on multi-year performance—and then held that spot for ten years. In 1948 the Yankees went 94-60, finished third behind the Indians and Red Sox—but history repeated itself:
1933-1943 New York Yankees .660 (1939)
1944-1947 St. Louis Cardinals .647 (1944)
1948-1965 New York Yankees .643 (1954)
The Yankees held the top spot for 18 years under Casey Stengel, Ralph Houk and several other managers—perhaps the greatest dynasty in the history of sports. Although numerous other teams made a run at the top spot, the Yankees in the early 1960s pulled so far ahead that even a 77-85 record in 1965 did not dislodge the title belt from their grasp. By 1965 the Yankees had held the title of baseball strongest franchise for 32 of 39 years—interrupted for three years by the Philadelphia A’s, for four years by the Cardinals. Finally, in 1966, the Dodgers reached the top:
1948-1965 New York Yankees .643 (1954)
1966 Los Angeles Dodgers .576
The Dodgers had been battling for the top spot throughout most of the previous quarter-century, ranking third behind the Yankees and Cardinals in 1942 and 1943, and then settling into the number two spot in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1962 and 1963. They reached the pinnacle in1966—and then did an immediate pratfall. They were swept in the World Series that year by Baltimore, Koufax retired, they traded away Maury Wills and several other players, and weren’t even in contention for several years after that.
And then, as I have noted before, there was an interregnum, in which no team was really the strongest team, although we have to choose somebody, but it is somebody different every year:
1966 Los Angeles Dodgers .576
1967 San Francisco Giants .566
1968 Detroit Tigers .570
The Giants reached the top for the first time since 1925 based on a long series of second-place finishes. In 1969 the Baltimore Orioles won 109 games, and became the first legitimately great team since the fall of the Yankees:
1968 Detroit Tigers .570
1969-1973 Baltimore Orioles .618 (1971)
Of course, the Oakland A’s won the World Series in 1972, 1973 and 1974, and would no doubt be ranked as the strongest team if we included post-season play. That doesn’t happen to be the method I’m using right now, but it’s not necessarily wrong, either; that would be the obvious choice. But I’m not unhappy to see Baltimore listed here. Everybody knows about that great A’s team, but the Orioles were their East coast counterparts, and yes, the A’s beat them in the playoffs, but Earl Weaver’s team was pretty good, too. This is what we have; take it for what it is worth.
In 1974, anyway, the Birds were knocked out of their roost (sorry) by the Big Red Machine:
1969-1973 Baltimore Orioles .618 (1971)
1974-1978 Cincinnati Reds .616 (1976)
But in 1979 the Orioles won 102 games, and moved back into the front seat—where they remained until after the World Championship in 1983:
1969-1973 Baltimore Orioles .618 (1971)
1974-1978 Cincinnati Reds .616 (1976)
1979-1984 Baltimore Orioles .600 (1980)
Whereas there are no great teams or few great teams in the 1980s, there were many great teams in the late 1970s. The Bronx Zoo, with Reggie and Guidry and Goose and Billy Martin. They had their moments, the Phillies were great, the Dodgers were, the Red Sox, the Royals, the Brewers had a great year, the Pirates in ‘79, the Tigers in ’84, but if you wanted 95 wins every year, it was the Orioles that would give them to you, from 1966 to 1984. There are few teams in baseball history that can match greatness of that duration.
Although Mattingly’s era is remembered by Yankee fans as achingly disappointing, the Yanks won more regular-season games in the 1980s than any other team. Again we have a kind of interregnum here, with no true champion for a few years. The Mets were probably the best of these teams:
1985-1986 New York Yankees .566 (1985)
1987 Detroit Tigers .565
1988-1989 New York Mets .578 (1988)
And then we have Eckersley and the Bash Brothers:
1988-1989 New York Mets .578 (1988)
1990-1992 Oakland A’s .578 (1990)
Oakland collapsed in 1993, while Toronto won their second straight World Championship:
1990-1992 Oakland A’s .578 (1990)
1993 Toronto Blue Jays .568
By the mid-1990s the Atlanta Braves had put together the greatest pitching staff in baseball history, which kept them in the top spot through the rest of the decade and beyond, despite a stiff challenge from the Yankees:
1993 Toronto Blue Jays .568
1994-2001 Atlanta Braves .620 (1999)
Again, the Yankees were greater if you consider the post-season, but the Braves were the best team in baseball in the regular season, year in and year out. That’s what we’re measuring here.
The Yankees finally moved into the top spot in 2002:
1994-2001 Atlanta Braves .620 (1999)
2002-2003 New York Yankees .609
And then the Red Sox in 2004—not. No, the Yankees retain the top position to this day:
1994-2001 Atlanta Braves .620 (1999)
2002-2007 New York Yankees .614 (2004)
From 2002 to 2005 it was the Yankees and the Braves, separated usually by a fraction of a game per season, but with the Yankees on top. The Red Sox have not been the strongest franchise in baseball since 1918, although, unlike with the championships that change every year, only a few teams have. Since the Braves have faded the Red Sox have pulled into second place, and they could move into first after the 2008 season—the Red Sox could, or the Angels could if they have the better second half. These are the top five heading into this season:
Yankees 964-652 .596
Red Sox 924-693 .571
Angels 899-719 .556
Braves 884-733 .547
Cardinals 874-742 .541
The Yankees are still about four games ahead of the Red Sox, heading into this season. Since 30% of the ranking is based on each season’s performance, 70% on the prior ranking, the Red Sox would have to beat the Yankees by eight to ten games to move into the number one position, in terms of the multi-year performance of the team.
2. What is the weakest franchise in baseball?
In the early days of baseball, when new leagues were formed and went out of business regularly, the worst team was usually a bottom-dwelling team in a fledgling league. The first team that could really be said to have earned the title of baseball’s worst team was the Washington Senators of the National League from 1891 to 1895—a team which pioneered the practice of selling their home games to their opponents and playing most of their games on the road, and a team that would typically finish about 40-90:
1891-1895 Washington Senators .330 (1891)
In the 1890s the same people owned multiple teams. The owners of the Pittsburgh team, for example, loaned some money to the owners of the Louisville team, wound up owning most of that team as well, and then transferred the best players on the Louisville team to Pittsburgh—making the Pittsburgh team the “Pirates”, and making the Louisville team pathetic:
1891-1895 Washington Senators .330 (1891)
1896 Louisville Colonels .328
The St. Louis Cardinals, a proud team from the 1880s, were now co-owned by the same people who owned the Cleveland Spiders. For several years they put all of the better players on the Spiders:
1896 Louisville Colonels .328
1897-1898 St. Louis Cardinals .316 (1898)
When that didn’t work out, they moved the better players (including Cy Young) back to St. Louis—making the Spiders, for one season, historically inept. But the Spiders couldn’t match the long-term ineptitude of the Washington Senators, who were still losing after all these years:
1897-1898 St. Louis Cardinals .316 (1898)
1899 Washington Senators .369
After the 1899 season the National League made a rule prohibiting interlocking ownership of baseball teams—a rule still in place today—and, as a starting point for this Brave New World, lined the Cleveland Spiders, the Washington Senators, the Louisville Colonels and the Baltimore Orioles up against the wall and shot them, causing the Orioles to ask “What did we do?” Whiners. Anyway, with the elimination of the league’s weakest franchises the title of the worst man standing reverted to the Cardinals:
1897-1898 St. Louis Cardinals .316 (1898)
1899 Washington Senators .369
1900 St. Louis Cardinals .414
In 1901 there was a new league, and, in our system, every new team starts out with a low percentage. In 1901 the weakest team in the new league was the Milwaukee Brewers:
1900 St. Louis Cardinals .414
1901 Milwaukee Brewers .338
After the 1901 season the Brewers either a) moved to St. Louis, or b) fell apart and were re-organized as the St. Louis Browns. . .not sure which is more accurate. Anyway, the Browns were actually decent in 1902, so the title of baseball’s weakest fell to Baltimore:
1901 Milwaukee Brewers .338
1902 Baltimore Orioles .377
The Orioles had a chaotic season. John McGraw, a key player on the old Baltimore Orioles of the 1890s, had invested in the upstart American League Baltimore Orioles, becoming their manager as well as a partner. The other partners turned out to be shaky, however, and McGraw found himself being pestered by his players for their paychecks. He couldn’t go on paying his team out of his own pocket, so he bolted for New York in mid-season, leaving the Baltimore franchise in complete disarray. They moved to New York after the season, becoming the New York Highlanders, later the Yankees.
Meanwhile, the new team in Washington, the American League Senators, turned out to be just as bad as the old team:
1902 Baltimore Orioles .377
1903-1907 Washington Senators .332 (1904)
Here comes the New Boss; same as the Old Boss; “First in War, First in Peace, Last in the National League” was replaced by “First in War, First in Peace, Last in the American League.” They came up with Walter Johnson about this time, which didn’t make them good, but it made them good enough to push the still-hapless St. Louis Cardinals back into the basement for one year:
1903-1907 Washington Senators .332 (1904)
1908 St. Louis Cardinals .359
But the Senators, even with Walter Johnson, lost 110 games in 1909:
1903-1907 Washington Senators .332 (1904)
1908 St. Louis Cardinals .359
1909 Washington Senators .347
By this time the Boston Braves had fallen on hard times:
1909 Washington Senators .347
1910-1912 Boston Braves .339 (1911)
Which set the stage for the first great Miracle Team, the Miracle Braves of 1914. The Browns took over last place:
1910-1912 Boston Braves .339 (1911)
1913 St. Louis Browns .367
In 1914 there was a third league, the Federal League. The weakest franchise in the American League, based on multi-year records, remained the St. Louis Browns, who went 71-82 in 1914, improving their multi-year winning percentage to .396. The weakest team in the National League was the St. Louis Cardinals (.433). And the weakest team in the upstart Federal League was the St. Louis Terriers. It was a tough year to be a St. Louis baseball fan, but at least you had options:
1913 St. Louis Browns .367
1914 St. Louis Terriers .357
By this time baseball teams had actual official nicknames, thank God, so we can stop referring to them by whatever we guess the newspapers might have called them most often. The weakest team of 1915 was another Federal League team, the Baltimore Terrapins.
1914 St. Louis Terriers .357
1915 Baltimore Terrapins .370
They lost 107 games, but they had the coolest uniforms ever, with the outline of a turtle on the front of the jersey. Maybe not the slickest image for a baseball team. Anyway, with the folding of the Federal League the position of baseball’s weakest team reverted to the Cardinals, who by this time had Rogers Hornsby on board but were still losing, as they had been since the mid-1890s:
1915 Baltimore Terrapins .370
1916 St. Louis Cardinals .428
As recently as 1914 the Philadelphia A’s had been the best team in baseball. Connie Mack had sold off Home Run Baker and Eddie Collins and Jack Barry and all of his pitchers, however, so by 1917 they had accomplished the seemingly impossible task of going from first to last in just three years. And they stayed there:
1916 St. Louis Cardinals .428
1917-1922 Philadelphia Athletics .348 (1921)
In this system 76% of the multi-year winning percentage is based on the last four seasons, but 24% is still based on what happened five years ago or more. Thus, the Philadelphia A’s performance, in going from the best team in baseball in 1914 to the worst by 1917, is really a remarkable turnaround. The Athletics began to improve by the early 1920s—but passed their cross to their crosstown rivals:
1917-1922 Philadelphia Athletics .348 (1921)
1923-1925 Philadlephia Philles .374 (1924)
The Phillies would return the favor twenty years later. The Boston Red Sox had fallen on hard times. By the late 1920s they were selling off players to pay operating expenses:
1923-1925 Philadlephia Philles .374 (1924)
1926 Boston Red Sox .375
And for several years the title of baseball’s worst team pingponged back and forth between these two worthies:
1923-1925 Philadlephia Philles .374 (1924)
1926 Boston Red Sox .375
1927-1928 Philadelphia Phillies .346 (1928)
1929-1933 Boston Red Sox .345 (1932)
Tom Yawkey bought the Red Sox then, lifting them out of this dreary competition, but the Phillies hung in there for another fifteen years:
1929-1933 Boston Red Sox .345 (1932)
1934 Chicago White Sox .389
1935 Cincinnati Reds .407
1936 Philadelphia Phillies .390
1937 St. Louis Browns .376
1938 Philadelphia Phillies .366
1939 St. Louis Browns .344
You will note that the percentages are going down here. The Browns and the Phillies were in a race to the bottom, losing 105, 110 games a year. They had become the worst two teams in baseball since the Braves of 1908-1912—and they hadn’t hit bottom yet:
1936 Philadelphia Phillies .390
1937 St. Louis Browns .376
1938 Philadelphia Phillies .366
1939 St. Louis Browns .344
1940-1945 Philadelphia Phillies .309 (1942)
In terms of multi-year performance, sustained losing, the Phillies had become the worst team in baseball history—the worst ever. They had been losing almost 100 games a year for 20 years now. Meanwhile, crosstown rival Connie Mack had rebuilt a dynasty and then, losing his money and his marbles, reinvented the lead balloon:
1940-1945 Philadelphia Phillies .309 (1942)
1946 Philadelphia A’s .361
But the Phillies weren’t giving up without a struggle:
1946 Philadelphia A’s .361
1947-48 Philadelphia Phillies .382 (1947)
It’s been sixty years, but Philadelphia fans are still booing. The Washington Senators, meanwhile, had not been truly the major league’s worst franchise since 1909:
1947-48 Philadelphia Phillies .382 (1947)
1949 Washington Senators .404
The Phillies got good all of sudden, 1949 and 1950, but the St. Louis Browns were still up to their old habits:
1949 Washington Senators .404
1950-1951 St. Louis Browns .379 (1951)
In 1952 the Pittsburgh Pirates lost 112 games, giving Joe Garagiola something to tell jokes about for the next 40 years:
1950-1951 St. Louis Browns .379 (1951)
1952-1954 Pittsburgh Pirates .362 (1954)
The Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles, the A’s moved to Kansas City, but they continued to battle for the upside-down championship:
1952-1954 Pittsburgh Pirates .362 (1954)
1955 Baltimore Orioles .370
1956-1957 Kansas City A’s .386 (1956)
I actually don’t remember those Kansas City A’s; I remember them beginning 1960, 1961. They were still horrible then.
1956-1957 Kansas City A’s .386 (1956)
1958-1959 Washington Senators .393 (1958)
1960 Kansas City A’s .405
The first modern expansion was in 1961. Since 1961 the worst team in baseball has usually been an expansion team in their first ten years of play. By the late 1950s the Washington Senators had built a farm system, and they were beginning to come up with ballplayers. But they moved to Minnesota, and were replaced with a new team, a New Washington Senators team. Now that became the worst team in baseball:
1956-1957 Kansas City A’s .386 (1956)
1958-1959 Washington Senators .393 (1958)
1960 Kansas City A’s .405
1961 Washington Senators .348
For one year, until the Mets started play in 1962:
1961 Washington Senators .348
1962-1968 New York Mets .307 (1962)
The percentage we credit to the 1962 Mets, under the somewhat arbitrary rules of the process, is even lower than the .309 percentage reached by the 1942 Phillies—thus, the 1962 Mets can legitimately claim to be the worst team ever. Depending on how you look at it. . .which is worse, losing for 25 years, or having no history at all and then losing 120 games? Your pick. In any case, the Mets remained the worst team in baseball until they won the World Championship in 1969, which was the next expansion year. Two of the 1969 expansion teams finished with identical 52-110 records, making our only tie at the top or bottom of the standings:
1962-1968 New York Mets .307 (1962)
1969 Montreal Expos .329
1969 San Diego Padres .329
The Expos, under Gene Mauch, moved up near .500 in the following years. The Padres didn’t. They became the New York Mets of the 1970s:
1962-1968 New York Mets .307 (1962)
1969 Montreal Expos .329
1969 San Diego Padres .329
1970-1976 San Diego Padres .348 (1970)
By 1976 the Kansas City Royals, also a 1969 expansion team, were winning their division. The Padres escaped the position of baseball’s worst franchise with the aid of another expansion, the additions of Seattle and Toronto to the American League in 1977:
1970-1976 San Diego Padres .348 (1970)
1977-1982 Toronto Blue Jays .334 (1977)
The Blue Jays being finally supplanted, after six years at the bottom, by their expansion twins, the Mariners:
1977-1982 Toronto Blue Jays .334 (1977)
1983-1986 Seattle Mariners .395 (1983)
History shows us a few examples of expansion teams that reached respectability within a very few years. The Los Angeles Angels (1961 expansion) were never contendors for the position of baseball’s worst team. The Royals weren’t, either, (in their early days) and of course in recent years the Diamondbacks caught fire almost from the day the franchise started. But for every expansion team that plays well, there are two or maybe three that have difficulty getting the train to pull out of the station.
In 1987 the Cleveland Indians became the first non-expansion team since 1961 to reach the bottom of the barrel:
1983-1986 Seattle Mariners .395 (1983)
1987 Cleveland Indians .436
And then, for several years, the Atlanta Braves:
1987 Cleveland Indians .436
1988-1990 Atlanta Braves .408 (1990)
1991-1992 Cleveland Indians .426 (1991)
Then there was another expansion:
1991-1992 Cleveland Indians .426 (1991)
1993-1995 Florida Marlins .353 (1993)
Of course, by 1997 the Braves, the Indians and the Marlins were all out of their doldrums, and all ranked among the best teams in baseball. The Braves turnaround—from the worst team in baseball in 1990 to the best by 1994—is stunning. As is the Tigers’ improvement ten years later:
1993-1995 Florida Marlins .353 (1993)
1996-1997 Detroit Tigers .424 (1996)
But then there was another expansion:
1996-1997 Detroit Tigers .424 (1996)
1998-2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays .351 (1998)
The Devil Rays outstruggled everybody until 2002, when the Tigers—still reeling from the mid-1990s—lost 119 games:
1996-1997 Detroit Tigers .424 (1996)
1998-2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays .351 (1998)
2003-2004 Detroit Tigers .364 (2003)
2005-2006 Kansas City Royals .394 (2006)
2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays .398
The Devil Rays are no longer the Devil Rays, and obviously they are no longer the worst team in baseball, and really, after ten years, they are no longer an expansion team. Some other team, some “established” team, will move back into that spot after the 2008 season, perhaps the Royals or the Pirates, or perhaps the Washington Nationals.
3. Looking at the Data by Franchise
There is one more thing you can do here, which is to look at the data by franchise. Obviously, having already gone on too long about this, I don’t want to do all 30 teams. But just for example:
Chicago White Sox (1901-2007)
Strongest Moment in their history: 1920 (.587)
Weakest Moment in their history: 1934 (.389)
Standing through 2007: .517 (11th out of 30 teams)
Texas Rangers (1972-2007)
Strongest Moment in their history: 1999 (.538)
Weakest Moment in their history: 1973 (.391)
Standing through 2007: .482 (21st out of 30 teams)
Cincinnati Reds (1882-2007)
Strongest Moment in their history: 1976 (.616)
Weakest Moment in their history: 1934 (.391)
Standing through 2007: .464 (25th out of 30 teams)
Montreal-Washington (1969-2007)
Strongest Moment in their history: 1994 (.556)
Weakest Moment in their history: 1969 (.329)
Standing through 2007: .458 (26th out of 30 teams)
The team lines make pretty nice graphs, but, as I say, I’ve gone on too long about this. I’ll explain why I needed to have this system when I get the other research done, which may take a few weeks. Thanks for reading.