Baseball has a long history of honoring its great players and teams. Not enough attention is given to the other end of the spectrum. What about all of the teams that are equally entertaining for all of the wrong reasons? We thought we would honor them today. Here are The 10 Worst Baseball Teams Of The Past 30 Years. And (surprise!) none of them are the Nationals or Royals.
10. The 2002 Milwaukee Brewers (56-106)
To get awesome draft picks, you also have to be terrible. And these Brewers were terrible. They might have been better off fielding actual brewers or their mascot, Billy Brewer, than these schlubs. Four years earlier, they had switched leagues and no one even noticed. The 2002 Brew Crew lost 106 games and finished 41 games out of first place. In one of the games they lost against the Dodgers, Shawn Green hit four home runs and a record 19 total bases. To add insult to injury, their stadium, Miller Park, was the home for the All-Star Game in that year. That’s the one that ended in a tie. The silver lining was that they picked up Prince Fielder in the draft that year, which ended up making the team better. And fatter.
9. The 2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays (55-106)
Luckily for the Brewers, the American League had a slightly worse team in 2002. The Devil was still in Tampa, which caused these guys to lose 106 games and finish 48 games behind the Yankees. Maybe it was because Crazy Hal McRae was their manager. Maybe it was because their best pitcher only had 8 wins. Either way, you know you’re bad when your team has to hold an exorcism to make people forget how bad you suck.
8. The 1988 Atlanta Braves (54-106)
Remember when the Braves were terrible? That was before grumpy old Bobby Cox waddled into town in 1991 and the Braves won the N.L. East 14 years in a row. Even 22-year-old Tom Glavine led the league with 17 losses in 1988. That makes about as much sense as the Atlanta Braves being in the N.L. West, which they were until 1994. We’ve seen maps and Georgia is totally on the Atlantic Ocean. Even the Starting Lineup toy of Dale Murphy (below) was sad to be associated with this team.
7. The 1988 Baltimore Orioles (54-107)
Much like the 2002 Brewers, the 1988 Atlanta Braves are lucky there was a worse team in the other league. The 1988 Orioles started the season with 21 consecutive losses, including a 12-0 loss on Opening Day. Twenty-one losses in a row is almost impossible. They even had two Hall of Famers (Cal Ripken Jr .and Eddie Murray) on the team and 21-year-old rookie, Curt Schilling, went 0-3 with a 9.82 ERA. The only thing these Orioles were good at is sneaking naughty words into their baseball cards. Too many Ripkens on one team will do that to you.
6. The 1998 Florida Marlins (54-108)
After winning the World Series in 1997, the Marlins’ owner Wayne Huizenga (of Blockbuster fame) gutted their lineup of all its stars in a fire sale. He got rid of the expensive players faster than Blockbusters get rid of local businesses when they come into town. The 1998 Marlins became the first defending World Champions to lose 100 games. But look on the bright side, Mike Piazza played 5 games with the Marlins in 1998, and somebody managed to snap this photo of him before he went on to fame and glory with the Mets… and they won the World Series again 5 years later, which should make you puke.
5. The 1979 Oakland Athletics (54-108)
This A’s team was so bad, owner Charlie Finley almost sold the team and moved them to New Orleans. The reason it didn’t happen is because the city of Oakland knew Al Davis was also trying to move the Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles, and didn’t want to lose both of their lousy teams. Luckily, it’s 30 years later and both teams are safe, secure and terrible in Oakland.
4. The 1996 Detroit Tigers (53-109)
Below is a picture of fatso Cecil Fielder swinging and missing with his eyes closed. Maybe he was thinking about a big turkey sandwich. But that wasn’t the problem for the Tigers in 1996. It was their joke of a pitching staff, which gave up an A.L. record 1,103 runs. Their best pitcher only had 7 wins. If only this was the worst Tigers team on this list, but it’s not.
3. The 1979 Toronto Blue Jays (53-109)
How bad do you have to be if basketball twerp, Danny Ainge, is your second baseman?
2. The 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks (54-108)
You know a team is bad if Randy Johnson manages to win 16 games and you they still lose 108. In 2001, the D-Backs won a dramatic 7 game World Series against the Yankees. Three years later, they traded Curt Schilling and their season was uglier than the Big Unit’s mullet.
1. The 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119)
Yuck. The 2002 Tigers are actually good enough to be on this list, but they’re eclipsed in awfulness by the ‘03 version. They actually lost some decent players between seasons. That resulted in getting outscored by 337 runs and 119 losses, which is the most in Major League history. There have been teams with worse winning percentages, mainly the 1899 Cleveland Spiders and the 1962 Mets. The Mets were an expansion team and the Spiders had sold off their stars and were essentially playing with a minor league team. That also gives the 2003 Tigers the distinction of being the worst team of all time without a good excuse. Mike Maroth lost 21 games, which hadn’t been done in over 20 years. When the Tigers pulled out their last game of the season and avoided surpassing the ‘62 Mets for the worst record in modern history, the Detroit faithful gave the team a standing ovation. That’s the only thing fans had to cheer for that year. Good job, Detroit. You’re not the very worst team ever, but you are the worst in the last 30 years.
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