If you have been watching or reading any sports coverage in the past 24 hours, you have likely seen the following bit of information at least a dozen times today:
"Phillies lose 10,000th game."
"Phillies first pro sports team to lose 10,000 games"
I personally have no clue how on earth this silly little stat, which the media had not even picked up on until a group of Phillies fans started a website, suddenly became the biggest sports story of the day. And worse yet, somehow the angle of this story has shifted to an examination of the Phillies organization as a bunch of losers.
Well, there are a number of things about this stat that the media is neglecting to tell you.
It's Baseball Stupid: Of course baseball teams are going to have more losses in their franchise histories than other sports. Pro baseball has been around longer than any other pro sports league, and the season is almost twice as long as either basketball or hockey, and ten times as long as football. Point being, the "first pro sports team to lose 10,000" headline is a load of crap. No other sport will ever have a team that will challenge baseball as far as total losses go.
Losses Don't Mean You Are Bad: The main reason that the Phillies have 10,000 losses is not that they are a bad organization. It is merely a factor of the Phillies having been a pro team in one form or another since 1883. When you play a lot of games, over time you will end up with a high loss total. I mean, Cy Young is the all time win leader and the all time loss leader. Also consider that the team with the second most losses is Atlanta, an organization that few people would categorize as being bad.
There Are A Lot Worse: If you look at all time win percentages for franchises you will see that the Phillies are by no means the worst franchise of all time. Here is a look at the teams in the three major sports that have lower franchise winning percentages than the Phillies' .468 ;
MLB:
Colorado Rockies, .466
San Diego Padres, .463
Tampa Bay Devil Rays, .397
Texas Rangers, .467
NFL:
Arizona Cardinals, .411
Atlanta Falcons, .409
Cincinnati Bengals, .438
Houston Texans, .300
New Orleans Saints, .407
New York Jets, .454
NBA:
Charlotte Bobcats, .313
Cleveland Cavaliers, .449
Golden State Warriors, .461
LA Clippers, .368
Memphis Grizzlies, .334
Minnesota Timberwolves, .434
New Jersey Nets, .447
Toronto Raptors, .408
Washington Wizards, .459
As you can see, there are plenty of teams that have been worse historicaly than the Phillies. So next time you hear the media trying to bash the Phillies for their 10,000 losses, just remember; the Texans are truly the worst.
