No One Counts on Brotherly Love for a Loser

The struggling New York Mets invite comparison with other famous losing teams in the National League, along with some gallows humor.

The 1961 Philadelphia Phillies lost 23 consecutive games--the longest streak of this century--finishing with a 47-107 record.

Joe Gergen of Newsday recalled that during the losing streak the Phillies returned from a trip, expecting a hostile reception.

“Spread out, so they can’t get us all with one burst,” pitcher Frank Sullivan told his teammates as they left the plane.

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Add losers: Joe Garagiola, who became famous as an announcer, was a catcher on the 1952 Pittsburgh team that had a 42-112 record.

“We were rained out three consecutive days,” Garagiola recalled, “and we had a victory celebration.”

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Trivia time: How many unassisted triple plays have been recorded in major league history?

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Hooligans for hire: From Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Examiner on the possibility of England’s not playing in World Cup: “It means that the only British soccer hooligans here for the World Cup will be those hired by small countries that cannot afford vandals of their own.”

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Guessing game: Andy Van Slyke of the Pittsburgh Pirates to Paul Meyer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on judging wind-blown fly balls at Candlestick Park:

“It’s not that tough a place if there are no balls hit to you. You can stand out there and endure the wind and cold. But when there are balls hit to you, you have to make an educated guess.

“Since I don’t have a higher-education degree, I guess you could say I made some uneducated guesses out there.”

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Record watch: Bobby Doerr, a Hall of Fame player and close friend of Ted Williams, said that Williams is watching Toronto’s John Olerud “like a hawk.”

“Ted really thinks that John has a chance to become the first player since himself to hit .400,” Doerr told Marty York of the Toronto Globe and Mail.

Williams hit .406 in 1941 with the Boston Red Sox. Bill Terry of the New York Giants was the last National League player to hit .400--.401 in 1930.

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Overpriced: The French Open golf tournament began Thursday, but Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Bernhard Langer were not in the field because they asked for too much appearance money.

“Faldo asked for $150,000, Langer and Woosnam for $95,000,” said Lionel Provost, the president of Promogolf, one of the organizers. “These are obscene figures to be throwing around with millions of Europeans out of work. . . . This year we decided to call a halt to the money madness.”

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Trivia answer: Nine, the last by Philadelphia’s Mickey Morandini on Sept. 29, 1992, against Pittsburgh.

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Quotebook: Tennis player Andrei Medvedev, after losing $1,000 in one night at the slot machines in a Monte Carlo casino: “The exercise is difficult and my shoulder was tired. The good thing was my wallet was obviously empty, so it wasn’t that heavy anymore.”