Published: July 06, 2008 11:26 pm      

When it comes to futility, Bucs have company to futility, Bucs have company

MORGANTOWN — As we head toward Major League Baseball’s All-Star break, the Pittsburgh Pirates are right on schedule to tie a record that would seem as unbreakable as Cy Young’s 511 lifetime victories, that being stringing together losing records in 16 consecutive seasons.

Indeed, there are high school sophomores and juniors who have never experienced a winning record from the team. It last was seen finishing with a better-than-.500 season in 1992 when it had that bitter final-game playoff defeat in Atlanta with one of its former players — Sid Bream — chugging home just ahead of Barry Bonds’ throw from left field.

Make no doubt, the Pirates went from a franchise on the brink of greatness in the early ’90s to team that lived on unfounded hope, now about to tie the Philadelphia Phillies’ record for futility that went from 1933 to 1948.

In some ways, it would be a case of justice gone bad if the Pirates manage to tie the Phillies or even break their record, for as dismal as the Pirates have been during their long sub-.500 run, they are nowhere near as bad as were those losing teams across the state of Pennsylvania.

In truth, these Pirate teams weren’t even the worst in Pirates’ history, just the longest to go without a .500 record. But when one goes back to the early 1950s, teams that were known as the “Rickey Dinks,” named after general manager Branch Rickey, one finds a team that lost 100 games in three consecutive seasons.

That team reached a low of 42-112 in 1952 under manager Billy Meyer, whose No. 1 uniform number was retired by the club, perhaps for just making it through that season. The Pirates of that era had only nine consecutive losing seasons, but they were doozeys.

Ah, but back to the Phillies. During their 16-year losing streak they finished with an 888-1,545 record for a .365 winning percentage (one could make that a .635 losing percentage if one wishes). The Pirates record during their streak — entering this weekend — is 1,077-1,368 for a winning percentage of .440, more than 100 percentage points higher than the Phillies.

These were really awful teams in Philadelphia, enough to run through nine managers while the Pirates only had Jim Leyland, Gene Lamont, Lloyd McClendon, Jim Tracy, Pete Mackanin and now John Russell suffer through.

And while the Pirates had one 100-loss season, that coming in 2001 when they lost 100 on the nose, the Phillies managed to lose more than 100 games in five consecutive seasons, topping it off with 111 losses in 1941.

That 1941 team was something to forget. It was managed by Doc Prothro, whose son, Tommy, became a great football coach at UCLA. The Phillies of that season finished 57 games out of first place.

Seven pitchers suffered losses in double figures, none winning in double figures. Best named was “Boom-Boom” Beck, who endured a 1-9 year, which wasn’t quite as bad as the 12-20 record he recorded with Brooklyn in 1933.

There was one Hall of Fame player on the team, Chuck Klein, who won the Triple Crown with the Phillies. Unfortunately, he was eight years beyond that Triple Crown season, having reached age 36. He batted .123.

For an idea of how bad these Phillies were during these World War II years, Klein stuck around for three more seasons, batting .071, .100 and .143.

The 1942 team only lost 109 games, with no one hitting better than Danny Litwhiler’s .271. Litwhiler, who would go on to become one college baseball’s greatest coaches at Michigan State, also led the team with nine home runs and 56 RBIs.

No typo there. The team leader had 56 runs batted in.

Klein had Hall of Fame company on this team. Former Pirate Lloyd Waner was playing out his career and at 36 batted .261.

We can go on and on about the Phillies’ futility. In 1936 they had not one, but two 20-game losers in Bucky Walters and Joe Bonman. The 1938 team was led in home runs by Klein — with 8.

Oh, it’s true, the Pirates have run some stiffs through their locker room during their losing years, but they also had some pretty good players like Jason Kendall, Brian Giles, Jason Bay, Jack Wilson, Jay Bell, Andy Van Slyke and Jason Schmidt.

But, steered more by financial reasons than sanity, they made terrible decisions.

If, however, you want to live on the hope that has carried the Pirates through these darkest of times, consider that they may not be far away from a championship team.

Just one season after breaking their losing streak, the Phillies won the world championship.

And in 2003 the Detroit Tigers became the second-worst team in baseball history, losing 119 games. Three years later they were in the World Series.

It can turn around quickly.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.