THE Losers : The Sadsack Have-Nots Are Peeking Over Fence at the Haves, Wondering Just What Keeps Them Out of Winners’ Circle

Having a bad day, or maybe a bad week? Well, quit complaining. You’ve got it easy compared to a fistful of sports teams who are having bad decades, perpetual also-rans stuck on a treadmill to oblivion.

They are the losers, the sadsack have-nots, peeking over the fence at the haves, wondering just what it is that keeps them on the wrong side of success.

The last time the Cleveland Indians were in the World Series was 1954, which is pretty bad until you consider that the last time the Chicago Cubs made it was nine years before that.

The New York Rangers haven’t won a Stanley Cup in 52 years. The Los Angeles Clippers went 15 years without coming close to the NBA playoffs.

The Green Bay Packers have drifted through limbo since winning the first two Super Bowls a quarter century ago. Nine other NFL teams--Detroit, Houston, Cleveland, Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix, Tampa Bay, New Orleans and Atlanta--have never even gotten to the big game.

It’s not that these teams don’t try to turn things around. Perhaps, in fact, they try too hard. They often operate a perpetual revolving door, firing coaches and general managers every couple of years.

Hall of Famer Ernie Banks played for 19 years with the Cubs under 10 managers including five different ones in 1961 and 1962 when owner Phil Wrigley employed a revolving college of coaches. It was all to no avail. The Cubbies finished over .500 just six times during those years and only twice, in 1969 and 1970, were they legitimate pennant contenders.

Still, Banks exudes enthusiasm over Chicago. “We exemplify loyalty, stability and family,” he said. “That’s pure baseball. We are the pioneers of major league baseball, over 100 years old with 15 pennants.”

Six of those flags were won before 1900, though, and there have been none since 1945. That adds up to a lot of losing lately.

“The good part is we were philanthropists,” Banks said. “You know, it’s better to give than to receive. We gave a lot. The Cubs won the World Series in 1908. It will come back. We will be a dynasty again. Stick around.”

Banks said there is a thin line between winning and losing and no explaining why a team lands on one side and not the other. “It has nothing to do with players or the manager or the general manager,” he said. “It’s a cycle. You’re down now. You can’t explain why. It’s one of those things that has no solution. You can’t figure it out. Mr. Wrigley told me that all the time.”

When Oakland started winning American League pennants, teams tried to figure out what made that franchise different. For one thing, the A’s had a sports psychologist on their staff. For another, they had Canseco, McGwire and Eckersley on their roster. If teams couldn’t get those players, they could certainly get a psychologist.

Rick Wolff, who studied psychology at Harvard and played minor league ball in the Detroit Tigers organization, was a perfect fit--a wedding of behavioral science and baseball performance. Suddenly his phone started ringing and teams were bidding for him like some hot shot free agent. “I talked to a number of them,” he said. “I decided the Indians made the most sense. When I told my wife, she said, ‘If you turn them around, you’ll get the Nobel Peace Prize.’ ”

Cleveland is a challenge, indeed. In the last 30 years, the team has won more games than it lost only seven times and never finished higher than third. Your move, doctor.

“The simple answer to why teams lose is talent,” Wolff said. “You could have the most motivated team in the world, but in the end, talent wins. There’s no way to get around that. If you’ve lost for 5-10-15-20 years, then it’s a question of your overall blueprint. Some teams build for speed, others for power, others for pitching and defense. When you lose for that long, the overall scheme is not working.”

Few people have been through the losing cycle in more places than Danny O’Brien, senior vice president for baseball operations of the California Angels. O’Brien’s other stops since 1973 have been at Texas, Seattle and Cleveland--a cumulative oh-for-first place.

In each case, the reasons for failure involved the bottom line--good old American greenbacks.

“When Bob Short moved the Washington team to Texas in 1972, he sold the radio-TV rights for 10 years for $7.5 million,” O’Brien said. “He took that money and paid off his debts in Washington. So for 10 years, there was no local radio and TV revenue.

“When Short sold the team in 1974, his perk for selling locally was part of the money accrued from 1974 seasons tickets. Modestly, that’s 4,000 tickets. League and visiting clubs shares still had to be paid on those tickets. That money came out of the gate receipts. Plus, we had to pay the regular percentage for those sales. And remember, there was no radio-TV income. We were in a perpetual hole, always climbing out, never able to get ahead.

“I moved to Seattle in 1979. They came into the league with Toronto in 1977. In Seattle’s first four years, it won more games than Toronto. But Toronto drew six million more people. That’s a $6 average price and $36 million does a lot to develop a team. That’s money Seattle didn’t have to enhance its position.

“They’ve always had good draft picks and good scouting. But they’ve never drawn people and you wonder if they ever will. With Toronto’s facility in Seattle, you stand a chance. In summer, people want to go outdoors there. The club asks them to go indoors. People resent that. It’s always been a struggle.

“In 1984, I went to Cleveland. That team has always been in trouble. There have been several positives in recent years, some good deals and people from the farm system. If this doesn’t work--the young kids with a new stadium in two years merging at the right time, if this doesn’t work, write them off.

“Money is always an issue. You can’t keep pouring money into a situation and wake up and realize you won’t draw three million or two million and you might not draw one million. Owners come to realize that and they get tired of writing checks.”

So poor teams lose. Sometimes, though, wealthy ones do, too.

“Why is it that way?” Ernie Banks said. “Who knows? There’s no way to explain it. It’s just the way things happen.

“How do you explain the 1986 Red Sox, one strike away from losing the playoffs and they win and then one strike away from winning the World Series and they lose? Look at the Yankees, a dynasty all those years and losing now.”

Then Banks brightened.

“The people who follow the Cubs are positive and patient,” he said. “We’ll change it. We will win again. And when we do, I’ll throw out the first ball at the World Series. Maybe we’ll get there the same time as the Yankees. Then it will be like 1932, when Babe Ruth called his home run. Then, when I throw out the first ball, I’ll point to the bleachers, just like he did.”