Nope, they finished that regular season 12-4.
Whoops. It was 2005 when they won as a 9-7 team.
Until a few days ago the Texas Rangers were the oldest franchise in the big North American sports leagues that had never won a championship. Oh, teams have waited longer than they had (they were founded in 1961) but the ones that had HAD won a championship, just not since 1961. I am counting NFL and AFL championships as championships, by the way, not just Super Bowls.
The oldest is now the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, who started play in 1966.
They were 11–5 in 2005. They were a wildcard team in the playoffs, but not the first wildcard to win the Superbowl.
How about the opposite question; which teams had the best regular season records and then went on to play in but lost the championship?
In the NFL, it’s the 2007 New England Patriots which had a 16-0 seasonal record but were defeated in Super Bowl XLII by the New York Giants.
The 2001 Seattle Mariners had the most wins (116-46) in modern MLB history (162 game schedule.) They lost in the league championship series, though.
The 1906 Chicago Cubs topped them. They also won 116 games and only lost 36. Then they managed to lose the World Series in six games.
In the NHL, the 1929-1930 Boston Bruins had a regular season record of 38-5-1 (87.5% winning percentage), but lost the finals in two games (Stanley Cup Finals were Best-of-3 that year).
- Since the league expanded to a 82-game schedule in 1995, the best team to lose in the finals was the 2010-2011 Vancouver Canucks, who had a regular season record of 54-19-9 (71.3% winning percentage), and lost the finals in seven games.
In the NBA, the 2015-2016 Golden State Warriors had a regular season record of 73-9 (89.0% winning percentage), but lost the finals in seven games.
BlankSlate already gave the answer for MLB.
NBA: 2015-6 Golden State Warriors. Record for most wins & best percentage at 73-9 (0.890) and lost in the finals.
ETA: Ninja’d by just 3 days.
I think that the Boston Bruins set a modern record for the most points last season, then lost in the first round of the playoffs. I’d say that is worse than losing in the finals.
Yeah, probably. The graveyard of NHL title hopes is littered with teams with better regular season records than the 2010-2011 Canucks, last season’s Bruins being the worst offender among them (list here), but the question I was responding to specifically asked for teams who lost in the championship.
I’m a bit surprised that so many teams with stellar regular season records don’t even make it to the finals. Maybe they unnecessarily pushed their players to exhaustion (and perhaps lost some key players to injury) trying to excel in the regular season, and consequently fell flat on their faces when the playoffs came.
Remember that “most points” in a season by an NHL team has been inflated by adding the one point given for an overtime or shootout loss in recent years.
Who had the longest losing streak in MLB with 24 straight losses? Difficult to guess unless you can remember the Cleveland Spiders from 1899.
The modern baseball record of 23 losses in a row is held by … no surprise here… the Philadelphia Phillies.
And of course, who else would hold the record for all time MLB losses at 10,551, a record they continue to break with every game that goes in the L column. They are ahead of the next worse team, the Braves, by more than 250 all time lost games so the Braves could lose every single game next season and still not catch up (down) to the obvious team holding the record…that’s right, you guessed it… the Philadelphia Phillies.
It took them 97 years to win their first title in 1980. Is that a record among sports teams?
The 1980 World Series (Phillies/Royals) was the first one since 1920 where neither team had won a previous World Series and this has not happened since then. For it to happen again, the Padres, Rockies or Brewers would have to face the Rays or Mariners.
It’s possible. As long as new expansion teams are possible it could happen some day. Without that it might become impossible if the remaining teams win their first without facing each other. The Rays have already been there but didn’t win.
All of them except the Mariners have been there but lost
Your post reminds me that of 6 teams who lost 20+ in the modern era (since 1901), Gene Mauch managed two of them: the 1961 Phillies and the 1969 Expos. Also, the Philadelphia Athletics had two such streaks in their history, in 1916 and 1943 so half of the streaks were achieved by Philadelphia teams. There were 5 such streaks before 1901 and yep, one of them was by a Philadelphia team.
To be fair(er), the team existed before the first World Series in 1903 so it really took them “only” 77 years. The previous team to win their first were the Orioles in 1966 so it took them 63 years and had made the WS just once before as the St. Louis Browns. The Rangers this year was their 62nd year having started as the second version of the Washington Senators. The Astros took 55, the Expos/Nationals 50. Still waiting are the Brewers and Padres at 54 and the Mariners at 46. By comparison, the Dodgers won their first in 1955 so took them 52 years. It’s possible the Brewers and Padres will break the Phillies record.
Over here in England, of the 12 founding members of the Football League in 1888, 4 (Accrington, Bolton, Notts County, and Stoke) are still waiting for their first title 135 years later. The longest gap between a team’s foundation and actually winning the league is 132 years by Leicester City (1884-2016) and may never be broken.
Port Vale FC were founder members of the Football League Second Division in 1892 and have played 112 seasons in the Football League without ever reaching the top division, much less winning the League.
Of the other 11 founding clubs in the Second Division, only Ardwick (now Manchester City), Small Heath (now Birmingham City) and Sheffield United have ever made it to the top tier. Some are now defunct, but Crewe Alexandria, Grimsby Town, Lincoln City, Northwich Victoria and Walsall are still dreaming. Crewe Alexandria, founded 1877, may be the oldest of the bunch.
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club have been contesting the County Championship since 1890 and have never won.
And totally ruined a great Monty Python joke.