As you’ve aged, you’ve probably noticed that time appears to be moving faster and faster. It’s a real thing. So, as your birthdays pile up, you might want to think less about the day-to-day results of baseball and concentrate more on the big picture. As seasons zoom by you like the star gate in 2001: A Space Odyssey, perhaps it’s time to focus on your teams’ historical record and not just the ups and downs of the current season.
Playing The Long Con: A Look At All-Time Team Records
An assessment of the six teams whose all-time franchise records are closest to .500: the Pirates, Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, Angels and Diamondbacks.
With that in mind, we’re going to look at the six teams that are closest to .500 overall – that is, their total won-lost records since they each began. Two of them are old-time teams and four of them hail from the 1961-and-beyond Expansion ranks. (No Expansion Era team currently has a franchise winning percentage of .500 or better; the 12 teams that do predate expansion.)
The data comes from baseball-reference.com and records reflect games played through Sunday, June 24.
Pittsburgh Pirates Currently: 113 games over .500
High Water Mark: .5372 on April 22, 1913
Low Tide: .3521 on Opening Day, 1885
(The High Water and Low Tide figures are the best and worst all-time marks by these teams beyond their first three seasons of existence.)
Pittsburgh began its life in the American Association in 1882, never getting more than two games above .500 and finishing at 39-39. The next time they saw a collective .500 record was 21 years later when, on August 22, 1903, they swept a doubleheader against the Phillies to bring the team mark to 1,409-1,409. Fans filled the streets and burned their own clothes in paroxysms of ecstasy.* For the next four-plus decades, with 1917 the only exception, the Pirates were a reliably solid outfit. As the postwar era dawned, the team legacy was a .531 record. A decade-plus of futility drove that down to .509 by the late ‘50s. Then, they drove it back up over the next 20 years, during which time they won three World Championships. After another run of high competence from 1990 to 1992, the legacy stood at .515.
We all know what’s happened since: A record 19 straight losing seasons. At 9,920 wins and 9,807 losses, this has taken the franchise winning percentage to just above where it was in 1903. With the Bucs making noises like they might be interested in breaking the streak, perhaps they can keep their legacy record from sinking below .500 for the first time since Teddy Roosevelt was ruler of the land. However, if the Pirates cannot arrest the free fall and they continue to lose at the same rate as that of the last two decades, they’ll be in the red sometime in late 2017 or early 2018.
*Assumption.
Currently: 97 games under .500
High Water Mark: .5003 on May 4, 2006
Low Tide: .4024 on April 20, 1965
In 1962, the Houston Colt .45s spent their first two weeks in the National League as a .500 team. Then expansion reality set in and they spent the next 44 years struggling to get back there. Finally, on April 18, 2006, they held off the Brewers 13-12 and evened up the franchise ledger at 3,507-3,507. They spent the better part of the next three weeks as a .500 career franchise before slipping back under for keeps. Six years later, they have yet to return to Level Land and are, in fact, heading further away from it more days than not.
Currently: 33 games under .500
High Water Mark: .5026 on April 23, 1994
Low Tide: .3532 on August 10, 1981, the first day back from the strike
The Blue Jays got out of the gate pretty hard, winning a little more than one game in three in their first three seasons. Things improved fairly quickly, though. In 1982, they finished just six games under .500 and then tore off 11 straight winning seasons, culminating in two World Championships. On September 1, 1993, they beat the A’s 8-3 and reached a total .500 record for the first time. (They then lost six in a row before going 17-4 to finish the season in the black.) They spent most of the strike-shortened 1994 season as a .500 career franchise, save for the period of June 24 through July 20. They fell under the .500 mark for good on May 21, 1995 with a 2-1 loss to Detroit. Since then, they have been in the “Toronto Zone;” only once straying from a program of winning between 74 and 88 games. This has kept them within one great or two good seasons of regaining the overall .500 mark
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Currently: 19 games under .500
High Water Mark: .4988 – right at this very moment!
Low Tide: .46907 on July 12, 1969
Unlike every other team that came into being in the Expansion Era, the Angels have never been truly awful. For instance, the most games they’ve ever lost in one year is 95. Yet, aside from splitting their first two games in 1961, they’ve never spent a day as a .500 career franchise. The good news is that the end is in sight. If the team wins 91 games this year, their all-time record will stand at 4184-4183. Given ownership’s commitment to paying for available talent, it is possible they can continue to build on that new-found position of career respectability in the years to come.
Currently: 11 games over .500 High Water Mark: .6506 on September 23, 1879
Low Tide: .4729 on September 15, 1945
The Boston Red Stockings, ancestors of the Atlanta Braves, went over .500 for keeps in their 41st decision of 1876, an 11-1 victory over the New York Mutuals on July 25. The franchise held on to that .500 (or better) record for nearly 50 years. A powerhouse throughout the 19th Century, they mostly went to ruin in the early 20th, save for their miracle championship of 1914. This led them to slip under .500 on June 4, 1923. They followed that up with a run of 8-43 to solidify their place on the dark side of the ledger -- a place that would take them nearly 80 years to overcome.
The Braves bottomed out just after the end of World War II and then began the long, slow climb back to evenness. This was helped by not having a losing season in their 13 years in Milwaukee, as well as their great fortune of the past two decades. Finally, on June 11 of last year, the Braves beat the Astros at Minute Maid Park to pull their lifetime record to 9,982-9,982. A rough patch followed, but 10 days later, they beat the Blue Jays to reclaim .500 again. That time it held – so far. They’re not so far removed from the baseball equator that a rough month couldn’t send them back below it. For instance, they lost their first four games of the season this year and were just three games over .500 at that point.
Currently: 10 games under .500
High Water Mark: .5469 on August 26, 2002
Low Tide: .4900 on May 13, 2011
The only other Expansion Era creation that has spent a considerable portion of its existence as a .500 team are the Kansas City Royals. They got up over .500 in 1977 and stayed there until the recent unpleasantness forced them back down under in 2002. Arizona is close enough to get back there in the not too distant future. Between them and the Angels, the Expansion Era cadre should soon have a more permanent representative among the plus-.500 teams.
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