(The albatross and the whales are his brothers.)

So the other shoe finally dropped. The Phils lost game number ten thousand with very little fanfare, at least coming from the Phils themselves. I understand that setting a losing milestone is nothing to celebrate, but couldn't the team have turned into an opportunity to advertise the history of the franchise and of baseball in Philly in general?

Hey, it ain't beneath me. So here goes…

First, looking at the progressive history of the all-time losingest teams, the Phils have only led the pack since 1992. The Braves were in the lead from 1987 to 1991, but fourteen straight division titles will dig you out of that hole. The Phils and Braves have been swapping the title of losingest team since the Braves wrested the crown from the Cardinals in 1920. The Braves owned the title from 1920 to 1956 and from 1987 to 1991, and the Phils from 1957 to 1986 and then from 1992 until today. The Braves still outclass the Phils, by 21 years, in the category of total years owning the biggest loser crown.

There have been nine franchises in baseball history who have held the title of big loser in sports. Besides the Braves and Phils, just two others, the Cubs and Cards, are the only active ones:

The Braves can at least boast to own the biggest winner title for 36 years, the last coming in 1907, however. The current leaders are the Giants who having owned the crown every season since 1988:

The Phils have lost to 38 different opponents. They have lost to 28 of the 29 other active teams (they are 3-0 against the Texas Rangers) and to ten different defunct teams. Here are their all-time opponents (through 2007) ranked by most losses:

Now, the Phils have used 858 different pitchers on the road to 10K losses. Here are the ones that lost the most games for the team:

The Phils have used 25 pitchers this year and are on pace to potentially break the all-time record of 37 by the Padres in 2002. Given that they have about two or three reliable starters and possibly fewer reliable relievers, I wouldn't be surprised if they broke that record even with Stand Pat in all his standing pat glory. Here are the teams that used at least thirty pitchers in a year:

The Phils will unquestionably set an all-time franchise record for most pitchers in a season. They are within two of the "record":

Finally, the Phillies have used 51 different managers en route to 10,000 losses. Andy Cohen (1-0) is the only one without a loss. Here are the top twenty losers on that list. Guess who comes in at #20: