All franchises’ most recent 12-game losing streaks
by Chris JaffeMay 27, 2012
Today the Cubs did what the Cubs do best—lost a game. For those counting, that’s 12 in a row, their longest losing streak since the franchise record of 14 in 1997.
That makes me wonder: What’s the most recent 12-game losing streak for all franchises?
Here are the results, listed in order of when the team lost the last game of its streak. I’ll put in parenthesis how long the slump lasted. To make it easier to read, the list will be broken up into fives. Here they are, from most recent until furthest back, and concluding with the two squads that have never done it:
CHC 5/27/12 (12—and counting)
KCR 4/24/12 (12)
SEA 7/26/11 (17)
PIT 6/18/10 (12)
WAS 8/20/08 (12)
TBR 9/10/04 (12)
MIL 8/30/04 (12)
BAL 8/28/04 (12)
ARI 7/25/04 (14)
NYM 8/23/02 (12)
DET 9/19/96 (12)
SDP 5/21/94 (13)
OAK 4/30/94 (12)
CIN 9/22/93 (12)
COL 8/6/93 (13)
LAA 10/2/88 (12)
MIN 6/2/82 (14)
TEX 5/6/82 (12)
TOR 8/10/81 (12)
ATL 5/11/77 (17)
PHI 8/10/61 (19)
NYG 8/20/44 (13)
BRK 7/16/44 (16)
CLE 5/21/31 (12)
BOS 5/30/30 (14)
CWS 9/22/27 (12)
STL 10/1/16 (14)
NYY 8/6/08 (12)
MIA Never
HOU Never
Only two teams have never had a 12 game losing streak, but many have never had a 13-game skid, including pre-expansion squads like the Yankees and Indians.
I like the fact that longtime rivals Dodgers and Giants both did it in 1944—and neither has done it since.
So in the living memories of quite a few fan bases they’ve never experienced what Cub fans are going through. That isn’t too surprising.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
“So in the living memories of quite a few fan bases they’ve never experienced what Cub fans are going through. That isn’t too surprising.”
Classic.