Phillies Lose 10,000th Game in Team History

WC Fields said, “I once spent a year in Philadelphia, I think it was on a Sunday.” It is certainly a tough city for a sports fan to love. The hometown of the cracked Liberty Bell and the over-rated cheese steak hasn’t had a sports championship in almost a quarter of a century. The baseball part of the equation has one World Series title in its 124-year history, in 1980. It looks like they won’t have a second this year either, but the real news is the Phillies baseball team has chalked up its 10,000th loss.

To appreciate the “achievement” of 10,000 loses, one needs to do a bit of math. At 162 games per season (which only came about a few decades ago; it used to be 154), a team that never wins would still need 62 seasons to hit 10,000. Not even the Phillies can lose every game. Still, the Atlanta Braves (born in 1871, and thus a dozen years older) have only 9,681 losses. The Cubs, known as one of the “losing-est” teams in America have lost 9,425; the Cubs are also older than the Phillies by 7 years.

No, the Phillies have specialized in big-time losing ever since May 1, 1883, when they blew a 3-run lead over the Providence Grays to drop their first game 4-3. From 1921 through 1942, the Phillies had 11 seasons of 100 loses or more. And from 1938 to 1942, they lost 100 or more each and every year.

At the same time, 34 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame were players or managers for the Phillies. According to Larry Shenk, the team’s VP for public relations and a team employee since 1964, “We are seventh in games played, ninth in wins and first in losses. And we’ve drawn 116 million fans since 1883. We’re the oldest continuous, same-name, same-city team in professional sports. We’re as old as the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s a matter of our longevity, that’s the way we look at it.”

And therein lies the lesson for supporters of other teams both in baseball and other sports. If one is around long enough, there will be a good portion of failure to go with any successes. Some teams have more success than failure, but there is still failure. Ask a New York Yankees fan about A-Rod’s championship rings (none), or a Montreal Canadiens fan about Stanley Cups in the last fifteen years (one, fifteen years ago). Tim McCarver, an ex-Philly turned broadcaster, put it all in perspective, “In our country, who wins and who loses is very important. It’s the ultimate deciding thing. In Philadelphia, it’s more the joy of going to a game and seeing a game. Wins and losses are important, but it’s the experience of being there that’s most important to them.” Or more succinctly, “Wait till next year.”

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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