My one and only favorite baseball team, the Philadelphia Phillies, lost their 10,000th game on Sunday night.
They are the losingest franchise in the history of professional sports. And, they have been for quite a while.
Sure, there are some qualifiers behind that title. Any team that's been around for 125 years, in a sport with 154- or 162- game seasons, is going to lose a lot of games over that period of time. There are actually four baseball franchises that have worse all-time winning percentages - the Devil Rays, Padres, Rockies, and Rangers. Outside of baseball, there are several franchises that have worse winning percentages than the Phillies (.468) - in the NFL, the Panthers, Seahawks, Bills, Titans, Texans, Chargers, Bengals, Jets, Falcons, Lions, Saints, Buccaneers, and Cardinals; in the NBA, the Bobcats, Cavaliers, Warriors, Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Hornets, Raptors, Wizards, and of course, the Clippers.
But none of those teams are anywhere near 10,000 losses. Simply put, the Phillies have been a very bad team, for a very long time.
Looking back, I can't help but think of all the losing memories the Phillies have given me:
The close-but-no-cigar postseason chases of the past 6 years.
The Ed Wade era, featuring the lopsided Curt Schilling and Scott Rolen trades.
The hopelessness of the Terry Francona and Nick Leyva years.
And the 1993 World Series, featuring the unimaginable 15-14 loss of game 4, and the gut-wrenching Mitch Williams/Joe Carter series-ending home run of game 6 (I'd link you to YouTube, but I can't stand to watch it again).
I can say that I was alive during the one World Series-winning season of 1980 - but unfortunately, too young to remember. I also have no memories of "Black Friday" in 1977 vs. the Dodgers, the collapse of the Whiz Kids in 1964, or the 1 winning season out of 31 from 1918-1948 - but believe me, I can feel them.
Most of all, I think back to when I was a kid, flipping through my baseball card collection, seeing a slugging third baseman in a powder blue and maroon uniform, and deciding that Michael Jack Schmidt was my favorite player, and his team would be my favorite team, forever...and not knowing the consequences of such a decision.
Here's to another 10,000.
