The Chicago White Sox are in search of history. Unfortunately, not all of the history is positive.
For decades, the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (worst winning percentage) and the 1962 New York Mets (most losses) have had valid arguments for having the worst season in Major League Baseball history. However, the White Sox are on their way to settling the debate once and for all with the worst record in both metrics.
Chicago, which already has 102 losses and a winning percentage of just .233, is on pace to break league records. Who will they join in infamy with if they can't find a hot streak in September? Here are some of the worst seasons in American sports history.
National Football League (NFL)
Detroit Lions 2008
Record: 0-16
Unsurprisingly, a season that ended with a .000 winning percentage tops this list. The Lions weren’t without occasional hopes (most notably enduring a stretch of four straight games decided by one score), but they ultimately fell short each time. The campaign was the eighth of a streak of 10 consecutive losing seasons for Detroit, and third-year coach Rod Marinelli was fired a day after a Week 17 loss to the Green Bay Packers that made the Lions the first team in NFL history to finish 0-16.
Cleveland Browns 2017
Record: 0-16
As the saying goes, misery loves company. Fortunately (in a sense) for the Lions, they are not the only NFL team to have the unique distinction of completing a 16-game season without a win. Just over a decade after Detroit finished with an 0-16 record, the Browns had a winless season of their own.
Cleveland's quest for victory came down to the wire. Most notably, a 4-yard touchdown pass to Rashard Higgins pulled the Browns into a tie with the Pittsburgh Steelers early in the third quarter in Week 17. But their hope was short-lived. Minutes later, JuJu Smith-Schuster returned the opening kickoff 96 yards to give the Steelers a lead they wouldn't relinquish and seal Cleveland's winless fate.
1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Record: 0-14
The Buccaneers' winless season pales somewhat in comparison to those of the Lions and Browns, who completed the feat with two more games on the schedule, but Tampa Bay finished with the same .000 winning percentage. The offense was particularly anemic in the Buccaneers' fateful campaign, going scoreless in five of their games.
The NBA
Tulsa crash 2011
Record: 3-31
Tulsa's 2011 campaign began with a 20-point road loss to the San Antonio Stars and didn't improve much from there. It was the first of 10 losses by 20 or more points for the Shock that season. Tulsa went two months between its first and second win. The Shock won just one home game all season en route to a WNBA-record winning percentage of .088.
National Hockey League (NHL)
Washington Capitals 1974-75
Record: 8-67-5
Needless to say, the Capitals' debut as an NHL franchise could have gone a bit better. The team set several records in its initial campaign, including the worst road record of any team in NHL history (1-39), as well as the worst defensive record (the team's 446 total goals allowed remains an NHL record, more than 30 more than the next closest team).
NBA
Charlotte Bobcats 2011-12
Record: 7-59
The Bobcats' season got off to a hot start, with a pair of free throws by rookie Kemba Walker sealing a 96-95 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on opening night. From there, though, things spiraled out of control. Charlotte didn't win more than three games in a given month before a brutal stretch in which the team lost its final 23 games. The Bobcats finished the season (shortened due to a lockout in the fall) 43 games out of first place in the Eastern Conference and 39 games behind the division-leading Miami Heat.
MLB
1916 Philadelphia Athletics
Record: 36-117
While the 1962 New York Mets (40-120-1) hold the record for most total losses in a season, the 1916 A’s are more relevant to the White Sox’s chase, having finished with the worst winning percentage (.235) of any MLB team (the Mets played seven extra games). Philadelphia finished 40 games back of second-to-last place in the American League. The historic campaign came just one season after the A’s fell short in the second of back-to-back World Series appearances.
