Nobody Loses Like the Pittsburgh Pirates

Maybe you glanced at the box scores this afternoon and saw the Giants beat the Pirates 11-6. Chances are good that if you looked at a scoreboard, you didn't even think twice about that result. But there was something special that happened this afternoon in San Francisco. It wasn't the Giants ten-run third inning that made the game special. Instead, it was the number in the Pirates' loss column when the game ended: 82.

With today's loss, the Pirates clinched a losing season. That seems unimportant because the Pirates do that every year, but that's EXACTLY why it is important. With this loss today, the Pirates clinched their sixteenth consecutive losing season, tying the record for an American sports franchise set by the 1933-1948 Philadelphia Phillies, a team so bad that they changed their name to the Blue Jays for two years in the middle of the streak.

The tough news for Pirates' fans is that there's a very good chance that while their new front office works on rebuilding the minor league system, losing season number 17 is looming pretty large right now. Few people under the age of 20 remember the Pirates being any good, and starting in October, teenagers will get driver's permits without ever having been alive during a time that the Pirates were any good. That's depressing.