So baseball's regular season has ended ... at lightning speed from my perspective. I don't remember a season moving so fast, but I'm sure it's just another example of time speeding up as you age.
A bunch of teams are going to the playoffs (I remember when it was just four) and I'll get to that eventually. But right now I want to address a team that didn't reach the playoffs. In fact, it finished as far away from the playoffs as possible.
The Rockies completed the season 43-119. That's a .265 winning percentage. That's pathetic. That's a pathetic team.
It may not seem that shocking though because there was a team just last year that was even worse. The 2024 White Sox finished 41-121 for a .253 percentage.
It looks like I wrote that post about the worst teams since I became a fan a little too early. Since I wrote that two years ago, two teams went and topped (bottomed?) any of the other lousy teams that I had previously experienced in the 50 years I've been a fan.
Here now are the worst teams since I became a fan:
1. Chicago White Sox, 2024, .253
2. Colorado Rockies, 2025, .265
2. Detroit Tigers, 2003, .265
4. Baltimore Orioles, 2018, .290
5. Detroit Tigers, 2019, .292
6. Oakland Athletics, 2023, .309
7. Arizona Diamondbacks, 2004, .315
7. Houston Astros, 2013, .315
9. Arizona Diamondbacks, 2021, .321
9. Baltimore Orioles, 2021, .321
The White Sox and Rockies have rocketed to the bottom. Also note that eight of the 10 teams played within the last seven years. I've been a fan since 1975 yet I didn't experience the worst teams I've ever seen until 45 years into watching baseball. (The only team in the "same ballpark" of badness from my time as a youngster -- the 1979 Blue Jays -- fell out of the bottom 10 with this update).
We're truly in a new era of Awful Teams. Let's see how the current terrible teams compare with the all-time worst in the modern era:
1. Philadelphia Athletics, 1916, .235
2. Boston Braves, 1935, .248
3. New York Mets, 1962, .250
4. Washington Senators, 1904, .252
5. Chicago White Sox, 2024, .253
6. Philadelphia Athletics, 1919, .257
7. Detroit Tigers, 2003, .265
7. Colorado Rockies, 2025, .265
9. Pittsburgh Pirates, 1952, .273
10. Washington Senators, 1909, .276
With the exception of the 2003 Tigers, that list of worst records had stood intact for half a century. I remember reading repeatedly about the 1962 Mets and the 1952 Pirates as the worst of all-time (you still hear about the '62 Mets, with good reason). Now two teams have placed themselves right with those other two that were joked about for decades. And they did it within two years. But will these two teams' ineptness last in lore for 50 more years?
I do not believe in a salary cap and I wish the commissioner would stop bringing it up because he's going to walk everyone right into a strike. But there should definitely be a salary floor. Or -- here's an idea -- kick out any owner who isn't interesting in seeing his team win, which is what major league baseball should be all about.
Comments
I believe there should be a salary floor too and the loss of home games and draft picks for violations. Also, penalize teams by not allowing them to trade AWAY players.
I remember reading how the players and sport-writers used to hang out in the bar after the games in the 1910s and 1920s, The aggregate difference between what a player made and what a sports writer made back then was a few thousand dollars today it is millions.
The reasons it is millions is because the larger markets have more income to pay the better players and the smaller markets have less and get the cheaper and lesser players. I don't how to change that - maybe expand the playoffs - in short series maybe anthing can happen.