By Rustin Dodd, Zack Meisel and Andy McCullough
When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers snapped a file 26-game dropping streak in December 1977, head coach John McKay tried to look on the intense facet.
“Three or 4 airplane crashes and we’re within the playoffs,” he stated.
It was arduous responsible him. The 12 months earlier than, the Bucs had completed 0-14 of their inaugural season, stamping their place among the many worst groups within the historical past {of professional} sports activities.
The listing consists of the winless, the hopeless, and the talentless. One proprietor traded all of his good gamers to his different staff. This 12 months, the listing features a new applicant: The 2024 Chicago White Sox.
This 12 months, the South Siders set the fashionable MLB file for probably the most losses in a season, topping the 1962 New York Mets Friday night time with loss No. 121 — and so they’re not carried out but. Right here’s the place the White Sox rank amongst a baker’s dozen of the worst groups ever.
So terrible they had been forgettable
13. 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats, NBA, 7-59, .106
Earlier than the season, the Bobcats’ proprietor sized up his staff’s probabilities this fashion: “Who is aware of how good we will be? We’ve bought some good items that may assist us get to the playoffs. I’m not ready till subsequent 12 months. I believe we’ve got a great high quality basketball staff this 12 months.”
It was a uncommon airball from maybe the best basketball participant who ever lived. Michael Jordan received six NBA Finals MVP awards. His Bobcats received seven common season video games through the 2011-12 season. Jordan flirted with immortality as a participant, after which as an proprietor he oversaw the maybe most vincible NBA staff ever assembled.
Positive, that season was shortened to 66 video games due to a lockout, however the Bobcats weren’t precisely trending effectively towards the top. They dropped their closing 23 video games. In any other case, 7-59 may need turn into 9-73 or 10-72 or, hell, 7-75.
Their seven wins had been one-third the entire of the next-worst staff. Their 87.0 factors per sport are the bottom by any staff within the final 20 years. They misplaced by double digits 38 occasions and by a minimum of 20 factors on 22 events. Their .106 profitable share is the worst in NBA historical past. Their head coach, Paul Silas, reportedly shoved ahead Tyrus Thomas “towards his locker” after a loss to the Boston Celtics as a result of Thomas had been “fraternizing” with the opposition. — ZM
12. 2011 Tulsa Shock, WNBA, 3-31, .088
When the WNBA’s Detroit Shock relocated to Tulsa for the 2010 season, legendary former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson took over as head coach. In 2011, the staff put a brand new spin on “40 Minutes of Hell.”
Gutted by departures, the 2011 Shock started the season with a 1-10 file earlier than Richardson resigned. It didn’t get higher. Below new coach Theresa Richards, the staff completed 3-31, setting a WNBA file for worst profitable share (.088). The staff completed final in factors per sport, second to final in factors allowed, and set a file for consecutive losses (20) — later matched by the 2023 Indiana Fever. “What can I say?” Richards stated. “I’m the one within the seat.”
The Shock lasted simply 4 extra seasons in Tulsa earlier than shifting to Dallas. — RD
Possibly relegation is a good suggestion
Derby County’s Steve Howard after yet one more loss, this one to Crystal Palace. (Ryan Pierse / Getty Photos)
11. 2007-08 Derby County, English Premier League, 1-29-8, .026
In 2023-24, Sheffield United set a Premier League file by permitting 104 objectives in 38 video games. And but by way of sheer awfulness, they’ll’t contact the Derby County facet from 2007-08, which received only one match and collected simply 11 factors, the worst for the reason that league started in 1992.
Supervisor Billy Davies was out after simply 14 matches. His alternative, Paul Jewell, didn’t expertise a win. Neither did anybody through the membership’s closing 32 matches — a file for top-flight soccer.
Derby County additionally set the file for fewest objectives (20) and most defeats (29). They had been relegated after the season and have by no means performed their approach again to the Premier League. As The Athletic’s Duncan Alexander wrote earlier this 12 months, “ … no facet will ever go as little as 11 factors once more, however Derby a minimum of have had the sense to by no means return.” — RD
There’s no earthly motive they need to have been this unhealthy
10. 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, NBA, 9-73, .110
In his memoir, Tom Van Arsdale, a 6-5 capturing guard who joined the Sixers in January 1973, in contrast the staff to a “burnt, pale, broken-down used lemon with the sticker value so low it was virtually offensive.”
The staff set the NBA file for losses with 73.
Their head coach was Roy Rubin, a New Yorker who was employed from Lengthy Island College to interchange Jack Ramsay, after which lasted simply 51 video games, ending with a 4-47 file. In a 2023 story for ESPN, heart John Block described Rubin as “a pleasant man, however he actually, actually had a tough time teaching.”
Block later moved to Florida and operated an IHOP restaurant.
Philadelphia had been in a common state of decline since dropping Wilt Chamberlain after the 1967-68 season. But it surely had by no means been this woeful. The Sixers endured a 14-game dropping streak that began in December, snapped the skid on Jan. 7, 1973, after which promptly misplaced one other 20 video games in a row.
The most effective participant on the ‘72-73 Sixers was guard Fred Carter, who doubled as one of the best story. The upbeat Carter, who hung round Philly for 4 extra seasons, was later credited with serving to popularize the fist bump together with his Sixers teammates. — RD
9. 2003 Detroit Tigers, MLB, 43-119, .265
This might have been the staff the 2024 White Sox had been chasing, if not for a miraculous restoration within the closing week of the season. The Tigers began the season 1-17. By late September, they had been 38-118 and on the verge of eclipsing these ’62 Mets as probably the most pitiful outfit to ever step foot on a contemporary big-league diamond.
It wasn’t as if this got here out of left discipline. As staff architect Dave Dombrowski recalled to The Athletic final 12 months: “We didn’t count on to have a great season, by any means.” Because the membership reached triple digits within the loss column in late August, although, they began eyeing that Mets file and computing how they may keep away from it.
With 20 video games remaining, they knew they wanted six extra wins to keep away from infamy. With six video games remaining, they nonetheless wanted 5 extra wins. They surged to the end line, although, and now, they’re merely a footnote within the annals of baseball ineptitude.
“It was virtually like profitable the World Collection,” stated outfielder Craig Monroe about that frantic end to the season, which included Detroit’s greatest comeback win in 38 years. “Doesn’t that sound loopy as hell?”
Why, sure, it does. — ZM
Growth? How about contraction as an alternative?
8. 1992-93 Ottawa Senators, NHL, 10-70-4, .119
The headline writers on the Ottawa Citizen couldn’t comprise their glee when the Senators returned to city after a 56-year absence: “Possibly Rome was in-built a day,” the paper declared after the Sens defeated the Montreal Canadiens within the first sport of the season. “10,449 followers went wild, and it was magical,” a sub-hed learn.
They had been unsuitable about Rome — and so they had been unsuitable in regards to the new hometown staff.
Ottawa didn’t win once more till its twenty third sport. The remainder of the season went about the identical approach. The staff received simply as soon as — as soon as! — on the street. And that occurred within the 81st sport. The membership completed with 24 factors, 34 factors behind the Hartford Whalers within the Adams division. Not ideally suited. — AM
7. 1974-75 Washington Capitals, NHL, 8-67-5, .100
When the Washington Capitals and Kansas Metropolis Scouts joined the NHL for the 1974-75 season and proceeded to have two of the worst years in league historical past, a common opinion fashioned across the league: Growth was a mistake.
The Scouts had been terrible. The Capitals had been even worse, ending a surprising 8-67-5, together with an unimaginable 1-39 on the street. The Capitals allowed a file 446 objectives. They misplaced 4 video games by a minimum of 10 objectives. The rationale was easy sufficient: The NHL had tipped the scales in opposition to the brand new franchises, permitting the league’s incumbent groups to guard all of their good gamers.
“It’s not truthful,” Capitals GM Milt Schmidt instructed The New York Occasions in 1974. “We paid $6 million to hitch the league, and look how little the opposite groups have left for us.”
When the Capitals did win their one and solely street sport, they returned to the dressing room and paraded a trash can across the room prefer it was the Stanley Cup. — RD
6. 1976 Tampa Buccaneers, NFL, 0-14, .000
Head Coach John McKay and his Bucs didn’t have a lot, however they did have these distinctive uniforms. (Concentrate on Sport / Getty Photos)
Hamstrung by inequitable enlargement guidelines, the Buccaneers had a roster of ageing veterans (lots of whom would injure their hamstrings) and unproven younger gamers. They set a brand new commonplace for skilled incompetence.
The Bucs didn’t rating till their third sport and didn’t file a landing till their fourth. They did handle to position 17 gamers on the injured reserve, an unofficial file. In all of the Bucs had been outscored 412- to-125, together with a 42-0 loss at Pittsburgh and a 34-0 loss on the Jets. And earlier than the season opener, head coach John McKay famously bought misplaced within the Astrodome tunnels.
The creamsicle uniforms had been good, however the staff airplane was not. In an NFL Movies phase, future Corridor of Famer Lee Roy Selmon — as a rookie, maybe the staff’s lone vivid spot — relayed a narrative about how the Bucs’ previous airplane, which all the time appeared to interrupt down, was leased from the proprietor of a chainsaw firm, full with a chainsaw emblem on the facet: “Instantly,” he stated, “I used to be a bit fearful.” — RD
5. 1962 New York Mets, MLB, 40-120, .250
“Can’t anyone right here play this sport?” Mets supervisor Casey Stengel famously requested.
The reply was no. (Properly, Frank Thomas and Richie Ashburn had been first rate.)
The Mets completed 40-120, setting the fashionable period file for losses. Their exploits had been legendary: Their pitchers posted a staff ERA of 5.04. They dedicated 210 errors. Almost 25 p.c of their wins got here throughout a 9-3 spurt in Might. Nineteen gamers would by no means play one other season within the majors. Maybe no second symbolized the 1962 Mets just like the day Marv Throneberry missed first base in opposition to the Cubs whereas hitting a possible game-winning RBI triple with two outs. When the Cubs appealed to first and Throneberry was referred to as out, erasing the runs, the umpire had a message for an upset Stengel. “Casey, I hate to inform you this,” he stated, “however he additionally missed second.” — RD
The 0-16 Membership
The 2017 Cleveland Browns discovered themselves trying up at just about each staff ever. (Patrick Smith / Getty Photos)
4. 2017 Cleveland Browns, NFL, 0-16, .000
Hue Jackson assured the Browns wouldn’t repeat their 1-15 file from 2016. If that occurred, he vowed, he would plunge into the uneven, chilly waters of Lake Erie.
And he was proper! The Browns didn’t produce one other 1-15 exhibiting in 2017. No, they went winless.
They ranked final within the league in factors per sport and second-to-last in factors allowed per sport. All season, they began a uncooked second-round decide from Notre Dame, DeShone Kizer, who tossed twice as many interceptions as landing passes. Just one participant, the bac”kup working again, recorded 400 or extra receiving yards.
When the season ended, followers organized a parade to protest the franchise for its annual incompetence. They marched across the stadium in subzero temperatures, shouting: “What do we wish? Watchable soccer! When do we wish it? Now!” Some Browns followers sported No. 16 jerseys with the identify “Owen” on the again. Some Lions followers made the journey to commiserate with the brand new members of the winless membership.
Jackson lastly waded into Lake Erie the next June. “It’s going to be a cleaning of our group,” he declared. He was fired 4 months later, leaving Cleveland with a 3-31-1 file. — ZM
3. 2008 Detroit Lions, NFL, 0-16, .000
The query, looking back, is without doubt one of the funniest within the trendy historical past of American sports activities press conferences. The Lions had simply misplaced, 42-7, giving up greater than 30 factors for the twelfth time in 15 video games. The staff’s defensive coordinator, Joe Barry, simply so occurred to be the son-in-law of head coach Rod Marinelli. As Marinelli spoke to the media, Detroit Information columnist Rob Parker couldn’t resist.
“On a lightweight be aware,” Parker ventured, “do you would like your daughter would have married a greater defensive coordinator?”
Sufficient time has handed that hopefully we are able to admit it: That’s a great zinger.
The Lions had been the primary NFL staff to ever go winless in a 16-game season. The feat was matched 9 years later by the Cleveland Browns. However the 2017 Browns had been outscored by 176 factors. The 2008 Lions? Strive a point-differential of negative-249.
Marinelli, understandably, didn’t take it effectively. Parker handled loads of blowback; he was suspended by the newspaper and finally resigned. However he stays a fixture within the sports activities media panorama. Marinelli was by no means a head coach once more. — AM
The Applicant
2. 2024 Chicago White Sox, MLB, file unknown
There’s an previous adage, usually attributed to Mark Twain, that claims humor equals tragedy plus time.
There’ll come a time sooner or later when the 2024 White Sox will probably be remembered in a approach that almost all baseball groups aren’t. Most of the groups on this listing haven’t been assembled or competing for many years, however their exploits won’t ever die.
Two gamers colliding because the opposing announcer declares the second “full White Sox?” Andrew Benintendi likening the staff to a “lifeless horse?” A 21-game dropping streak that tied the AL file?
Sooner or later, these will probably be colourful and humorous particulars.
It simply takes time.
The White Sox had a 4-40 stretch. They misplaced 27 of 28 at house. They turned the primary staff for the reason that 1916 A’s to fall 81 video games beneath .500.
You possibly can go on.
Historical past will choose the 2024 White Sox. However they aren’t the worst staff of all time. — RD
The Cleveland Spiders’ legacy lives on. (Quinn Harris / Getty Photos)
The Worst Staff of All Time
1. 1899 Cleveland Spiders, MLB, 20-134, .130
Frank and Stanley Robison owned each the Cleveland Spiders and St. Louis Perfectos, and believing that St. Louis was the higher wager to generate profits going ahead, they stripped the Cleveland roster of all its expertise and stacked St. Louis as an alternative. Earlier than the season, they swapped Cy Younger and different stars with gamers who didn’t finally have distinguished awards named after them. And so the Spiders turned probably the most futile baseball staff of all time, a sad-sack bunch destined to fail earlier than they ever took the sphere.
The Spiders endured a 24-game dropping streak. They misplaced 40 of their final 41 video games. They completed the season with a run differential of minus-723. They trailed first-place Brooklyn by 84 video games within the closing standings. In the course of the summer-long funeral procession, the Cleveland Plain Supplier stopped referring to them because the Spiders and as an alternative dubbed them the Cleveland Exiles or the Cleveland Forsakens.
Following a 4-2 Spiders win on Aug. 25 in opposition to the New York Giants, the Plain Supplier printed: “An eighth surprise has come into the world and the Colossus of Rhodes, the Pyramids, the Statue of Zeus and the remainder of the seven wonders had higher look to their laurels. Cleveland has received one other sport. The way it occurred is past rationalization. … They put up such a pointy, quick sport that the 200 individuals who had gone out to League Park to get a bit contemporary air and take a quiet siesta had been quickly aroused to one thing very near enthusiasm.” The Spiders wouldn’t win once more for three-and-a-half weeks.
Followers bailed on supporting the deliberately depleted roster, so the membership wound up touring for many of its video games. They launched into a 50-game journey in July and August, on which they went 6-44. Even the staff’s uniforms stunk, in line with the Plain Supplier, which wrote: “Now they’re obliged to put on the castoff uniforms of the St. Louis Browns, all of that are plenteously adorned with patches.”
The Spiders had been promptly booted from the Nationwide League and disbanded. Cleveland baseball was reborn in 1901 as a constitution member of the American League with a franchise that also stands at the moment because the Guardians. — ZM
(Illustration by Meech Robinson / The Athletic; Images: Quinn Harris / Getty Photos, Gregory Shamus / Getty Photos, David T. Foster III / Charlotte Observer / MCT)