DENVER (KDVR) — It hasn’t been pretty, and plenty of unwanted records came the Colorado Rockies’ way this season, but after the team’s 42nd win of the year — you can’t call them the worst team ever.
The team backed that celebration up with its first series win in September against the Los Angeles Angels, the team that will forever be synonymous with a sad, but much-needed celebration in Colorado baseball history.
The win that got the Rockies to 42 occurred in the first game of the series when they beat the Angels in a close one, 7-6, on Friday. They followed up that game with a 0-3 loss on Saturday, and then clinched the series with a 3-1 win on Sunday.
Why win No. 42 was important
With each passing game, the Rockies moved closer and closer to the title of worst ever. At win 41 during the season, the Rox matched the Sox, the 2024 Chicago White Sox, who only won 41 total games last season.
The Rockies had only nine games left this season to get that history-defining win.
Bad company
The Rockies won’t be joining the White Sox as the co-worst ever in the modern era, but where do they rank historically?
It can be hard to determine who is actually the biggest loser, as records can be influenced by different events or time periods when the teams played. A team can have the fewest wins, but it only played in 120 games that season, in comparison to the modern 162-game season.
Each team is historically poor in its own way, but here are some in the ballpark of the Rockies:
- Worst record all time, any era: 1899 Cleveland Spiders, 20-134 — (.130)
- Worst record post 1900, the modern era: 2024 Chicago White Sox, 41-121 — (.253)
- Near worst in modern era: 1916 Philadelphia Athletics, 36-117 — (.235)
- Another stinker: 1962 Boston Braves, 38-115 — (.248)
- One more contender: 1962 New York Mets, 40-120 — (.250)
It will certainly be a season the Rockies will want to put behind them. They actually have a couple of games remaining where the team can hopefully tack on a few more wins to put some more distance between themselves and the teams above.
It’s a weird thing to celebrate, but you wouldn’t be able to find many teams that are proud of being the worst ever — something the Rockies are not.
Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.
