The Worst Seasons in Baseball History

The 1916 Athletics, one of baseball's worst teams ever

The Colorado Rockies and Houston Astros each had their worst season in franchise history in 2012. For the Rockies, it was a 64-98 record (.395 winning percentage). For the Astros, it was a 55-107 record (.340). It's sort impressive that two teams playing in the same league were both able to have their worst record. How do their marks stack up with other teams' worst ever records? What are the very worst records in modern history? What are the worst seasons in more recent history? Let's take a look.

Modern baseball history dates to 1901, when the American League began play. Many National League teams existed before 1901, but that's as far back as I'm going with this series (which will also examine the worst two and three-season stretches in baseball history). For better or for worse, the Cleveland Spiders are long gone, and their 1899 season, in which they went just 20-134 (.130) predates the modern era. You can read more about them here though, if you're interested. The Phillies and Cardinals also had some dreadful seasons in the 1800s, but they won't be included in this series.

In the chart that follows, the sixteen "original" teams are starred (these are the teams that played in 1901). Other franchises are listed with their first year of play. Some of these teams also played in different cities or even under different names at the time of their worst season, I've made note of that too. Also, ties used to be a semi-regular occurrence in baseball, teams in early 20th century would often finish with 3 or 4 of them. I'm ignoring all ties for this series, for what that's worth.

*This post was originally written just before the 2013 season began. It has been updated to include that season's Astros.

Worst Records in Modern History:

Rank	Year	Team	W-L (W%)
19t	1937	St. Louis Browns (Orioles)	46-108 (.299)
t19	1945	Philadelphia Phillies	46-108 (.299)
18	1939	Philadelphia Phillies	45-106 (.298)
17	1911	St. Louis Browns (Orioles)	45-107 (.296)
16	1909	Boston Doves (Braves)	45-108 (.294)
15	1911	Boston Rustlers (Braves)	44-107 (.291)
14	1915	Philadelphia Athletics	43-109 (.283)
13	1928	Philadelphia Phillies	43-109 (.283)
12	1932	Boston Red Sox	43-111 (.279)
11	1939	St. Louis Browns (Orioles)	43-111 (.279)
10	1941	Philadelphia Phillies	43-111 (.279)
9	1942	Philadelphia Phillies	42-109 (.278)
8	1909	Washington Senators (Twins)	42-110 (.276)
7	1952	Pittsburgh Pirates	42-112 (.273)
6	2003	Detroit Tigers	43-119 (.265)
5	1919	Philadelphia Athletics	36-104 (.257)
4	1904	Washington Senators (Twins)	38-113 (.252)
3	1962	New York Mets	40-120 (.250)
2	1935	Boston Braves	38-115 (.248)
1	1916	Philadelphia Athletics	36-117 (.235)

Philadelphia pulls in eight of those twenty seasons, five for the Phillies and three for the Athletics. The St. Louis Browns put up three of the very worst records before having their identify changed and being moved to a new city as part of the Witness Protection Program. And three cheers for Boston's National League team, which had a sub-.300 season as the Doves, another as the Rustlers, and another as Braves. Of course, that franchise has also won a World Series in three different cities, so there's that.

Each Franchise's Worst Season in Modern History:

Team	Season	W-L (W%)	Played As
Baltimore Orioles*	1939	43-111 (.279)	St. Louis Browns
Boston Red Sox*	1932	43-111 (.279)
Chicago White Sox*	1932	49-102 (.325)
Cleveland Indians*	1914	51-102 (.333)	Cleveland Naps
Detroit Tigers*	2003	43-119 (.265)
Houston Astros (1962)	2013	51-111 (.315)
Kansas City Royals (1969)	2005	56-106 (.346)
Los Angeles Angels (1961)	1980	65-95 (.406)	California Angels
Minnesota Twins*	1904	38-113 (.252)	Washington Senators
New York Yankees*	1912	50-102 (.329)	New York Highlanders
Oakland Athletics*	1916	36-117 (.235)	Philadelphia Athletics
Seattle Mariners (1977)	1978	56-104 (.350)
Tampa Bay Rays (1998)	2002	55-106 (.342)	Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Texas Rangers (1961)	1963	56-106 (.346)	Washington Senators
Toronto Blue Jays (1977)	1979	53-109 (.327)
Arizona Diamondbacks (1998)	2004	51-111 (.315)
Atlanta Braves*	1935	38-115 (.248)	Boston Braves
Chicago Cubs*	1962 & 1966	59-103 (.364)
Cincinnati Reds*	1934	52-99 (.344)
Colorado Rockies (1993)	2012	64-98 (.395)
Los Angeles Dodgers*	1905	48-104 (.316)	Brooklyn Superbas
Miami Marlins (1993)	1998	54-108 (.333)	Florida Marlins
Milwaukee Brewers (1969)	2002	56-106 (.346)
New York Mets (1962)	1962	40-120 (.250)
Philadelphia Phillies*	1942	42-109 (.278)
Pittsburgh Pirates*	1952	42-112 (.272)
San Diego Padres (1969)	1969	52-110 (.321)
San Francisco Giants*	1902	48-88 (.353)	New York Giants
St. Louis Cardinals*	1903	43-94 (.314)
Washington Nationals (1969)	1969	52-110 (.321)	Montreal Expos

The Angels are the only team to never win fewer than 40% of their games, which is fairly impressive. The Rockies 2012 mark is the "best" worst record of any National League team. The Angels have played 52 seasons and the Rockies have played 20. Looking at only the sixteen franchises who've been around since 1901, the one with the best worst season is the Cubs. Among the eight original American League teams, it's the Indians. Each of those teams has gone longer without winning the World Series than any other team in their respective league; it's a fun coincidence that they also share this bit of history.

Many teams' worst seasons clump together into a few different eras. Let's take a look at how many of these worst seasons each decade hosted, along with the very worst record by any team in that decade.

Worst Season For Each Decade:

Decade	Worst Team	W-L (W%)	Franchises Whose Worst Record Happened Then
1900s	1904 Senators	38-113 (.252)	4	Twins, Giants, Dodgers, Cardinals
1910s	1916 Athletics	36-117 (.235)	3	Indians, Yankees, Athletics
1920s	1928 Phillies	43-109 (.283)	0
1930s	1935 Braves	38-115 (.248)	5	Orioles, Red Sox, White Sox, Braves, Reds
1940s	1942 Phillies	42-109 (.278)	1	Phillies
1950s	1952 Pirates	42-112 (.273)	1	Pirates
1960s	1962 Mets	40-120 (.250)	5	Rangers, Cubs, Mets, Padres, Nationals
1970s	1979 Blue Jays	53-109 (.327)	2	Mariners, Blue Jays
1980s	1988 Orioles	54-107 (.335)	1	Angels
1990s	1996 Tigers	53-109 (.327)	1	Marlins
2000s	2003 Tigers	43-119 (.265)	5	Tigers, Royals, Rays, Diamondbacks, Brewers
2010s	2013 Astros	51-111 (.315)	2	Astros, Rockies

Only two of the original sixteen teams have had their worst record come since expansion began in 1961, the Cubs and the Tigers. Seven of the fourteen expansion teams have had their worst record in one of their first five seasons, including three who had it in their very first year (Mets, Padres, Nationals/Expos).

The 2003 Tigers are the only team in the last fifty years to win less than 30% of their games, something that was far more common in the pre-expansion era. I suspect with so many more teams, it's that much harder for any one of them to be that much worse than their competition. Hats off to that Detroit team, they lost with the kind of gusto your grandfather could appreciate.

Of course, while every franchise has a worst season, some franchises have had a whole lot more bad seasons than others. There have been 59 seasons in modern history in which a team won less than one third of its games.

Most Seasons With Winning% Below .333:

11: Phillies
7: Athletics
6: Braves
5: Red Sox, Twins
4: Orioles, Mets
3: Tigers, Pirates
2: Yankees, Cardinals
1: Astros, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Padres, Nationals, White Sox
0: Indians, Royals, Angels, Mariners, Rays, Rangers, Cubs, Reds, Rockies, Marlins, Brewers, Giants

All seven of the Athletics' sub-.333 seasons came while they were still in Philadelphia, which means 18 of the 58 worst seasons came from teams playing in the City of Brotherly Love. All six of the Braves sub-.333 seasons came while they were still in Boston, meaning 11 of the 58 worst seasons came from teams playing there. With 29 sub-.333 seasons between them, Philadelphia and Boston have combined  for nearly half of the 59 worst records in modern baseball history. On the other end of the spectrum, Chicago has had just one season that bad, despite having had a team in each league since 1901.

A small number of those teams weren't even the worst team in baseball that season, and in many seasons the worst team isn't nearly that bad.

Most Seasons With Worst Record in MLB:

13: Phillies

12: Twins

11: Athletics

10: Orioles

7: Pirates

6: Red Sox, Braves, Mets

5: Tigers

4: Indians, Rays, Blue Jays, Nationals

3: Astros, White Sox, Mariners, Rangers, Padres

2: Cubs, Dodgers, Cardinals, Giants

1: Royals, Yankees, Diamondbacks, Reds, Marlins

0: Angels, Rockies, Brewers

Every one of the sixteen original teams has finished with the worst record at least once. The Yankees (1912) and Reds (1934) at just once apiece are both very impressive. I was surprised to see the Cubs have finished with the worst record only twice in franchise history, and to see that the Royals have held that distinction only once.

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There you have it, the worst seasons in modern history, and the worst of every decade, and the worst by every franchise. In Part II of this series, I'll look at the worst back-to-back seasons.