Ranking Yankee Post-Season Failures

[Crash Course]

This one (http://www.netshrine.com/yankee18.html) is too long for a SOTS blog entry. So, I'm sharing a link instead.

18 is a lot.

[Jim Rice]

Yup, losing in the post-season in 18 different years is a lot. But let's put in in perspective.


While the Yankees' 18 years with post-season losses is the most since the beginning of the World Series, it is balanced by 26 years winning the World Series. Compare that to the Dodgers franchise, the only other franchise with 18 years of post-season loss. They have 6 World Series's titles to show for all that misery.
Next in line is the Giants franchise, with 17 post-season exits. They have just 5 World Series titles.
Next is the Braves, with 16 years losing in the playoffs. They have only 3 titles.
The Chicago teams have combined for 18 post-season losses, but just 4 championships between them.
Or let's look at the combined accomplishments of these franchises: Devil Rays, Rockies, Brewers, Expos, Padres, Mariners, Rangers, Astros, Diamondbacks, Angels, Royals, Phillies, Marlins, Blue Jays, Mets, White Sox, Indians, Cubs, Orioles, Twins, Braves. That's 21 franchises, 70% of all the current franchises in baseball, and they include seven franchises that have been around as long or longer than the Yankees. What is their combined post-season record (in years)? 25-108. That 25 titles and 108 years of losing in the playoffs, compared to 26-18 for the Yankees.
How about the next five: Tigers, Reds, Pirates, Giants, Red Sox. All around as long or longer than the Yankees. Combined post-season record: 25-51.
Or how bout the two teams that have won more titles than any team but the Yankees? While the Yankees have been in the post-season in 44 different years, the two next closest teams in terms of titles, the A's and Cardinals, have been in the post-season just 42 times COMBINED. Their combined record? 18-24.
In fact, of all current franchises, there are two, count 'em, two, that have a winning record in years in which they reached the post-season: The New York Yankees, 26-18. The Florida Marlins, 2-0. That's it. The next best mark is St. Louis at 9-11, then the A's at 9-13 and Blue Jays at 2-3. All other franchises have a post-season success percentage of less than .400.


Sorry, I don't care if those 18 losses were excruciating or not, it's hard to have any pity at all for the plight of the Yankees and their fans.

[Crash Course]

While the Yankees' 18 years with post-season losses is the most since the beginning of the World Series, it is balanced by 26 years winning the World Series. Compare that to the Dodgers franchise, the only other franchise with 18 years of post-season loss. They have 6 World Series's titles to show for all that misery.

I count 16 for the Dodgers, offset by 6. What two am I missing?

[captain_napalm]

Depends... Have a list? :D


Year League Record Finish Manager High OPS Low ERA Year
2004 NL West 93-69 DIV 1 Jim Tracy Beltre Perez 2004
1996 NL West 90-72 WC 2 Tommy Lasorda and Bill Russell Piazza Nomo 1996
1995 NL West 78-66 DIV 1 Tommy Lasorda Piazza Nomo 1995
1994 NL West 58-56 DIV 1 Tommy Lasorda Piazza Gross 1994
1988 NL West 94-67 WS 1 Tommy Lasorda Gibson Hershiser 1988
1985 NL West 95-67 DIV 1 Tommy Lasorda Guerrero Hershiser 1985
1983 NL West 91-71 DIV 1 Tommy Lasorda Guerrero Welch 1983
1981 NL West 63-47 WS Tommy Lasorda Cey Hooton 1981
1978 NL West 95-67 NL 1 Tommy Lasorda Smith Hooton 1978
1977 NL West 98-64 NL 1 Tommy Lasorda Smith Hooton 1977
1974 NL West 102-60 NL 1 Walter Alston Wynn Marshall 1974
1966 National Lg 95-67 NL 1 Walter Alston Lefebvre Koufax 1966
1965 National Lg 97-65 WS 1 Walter Alston Fairly Koufax 1965
1963 National Lg 99-63 WS 1 Walter Alston Davis Koufax 1963
1959 National Lg 88-68 WS 1 Walter Alston Moon Drysdale 1959
1956 National Lg 93-61 NL 1 Walter Alston Snider Maglie 1956
1955 National Lg 98-55 WS 1 Walter Alston Snider Newcombe 1955
1953 National Lg 105-49 NL 1 Chuck Dressen Snider Erskine 1953
1952 National Lg 96-57 NL 1 Chuck Dressen Robinson Loes 1952
1949 National Lg 97-57 NL 1 Burt Shotton Robinson Roe 1949
1947 National Lg 94-60 NL 1 Clyde Sukeforth and Burt Shotton Walker Branca 1947
1941 National Lg 100-54 NL 1 Leo Durocher Reiser Wyatt 1941
1920 National Lg 93-61 NL 1 Wilbert Robinson Wheat Grimes 1920
1916 National Lg 94-60 NL 1 Wilbert Robinson Wheat Marquard 1916
1900 National Lg 82-54 NL 1 Ned Hanlon Kelley McGinnity 1900
1899 National Lg 101-47 NL 1 Ned Hanlon Keeler Hughes 1899
1890 National Lg 86-43 NL 1 Bill McGunnigle Pinkney Lovett 1890

[Crash Course]

I think I missed 1996. That would make 17. There was no post-season to lose in 1890 and 1899.

[Jim Rice]

I think I missed 1996. That would make 17. There was no post-season to lose in 1890 and 1899.

I got my list from baseball-reference.com, but it includes '94 and shouldn't. My point remains unchanged.

[PianoMonkey]

I would say that life as a Yankees fan has been a long series of ups and downs, and they've had more than their share of post-season heartbreak.

But, as the only team in baseball (sports?) with anything approaching a statistically relevant post-season sample-size, one could hardly expect a team (any team) to lose FEWER than 18 times out of a total of 44 apearances. Not that this will quiet fans' recent woes, but it at least helps explain a percieved lack of sympathy.

[Crash Course]

Sorry, I don't care if those 18 losses were excruciating or not, it's hard to have any pity at all for the plight of the Yankees and their fans.

This is what I don't get. IMHO, if the Red Sox fans (for example) want to piss and whine about 1946, 1967, 1975, 1978, and 2003 - that's fine. Heck, if those years happened to my team, I would moan too.

In fact, that's what I'm saying here - that the Yankees can match "1946, 1967, 1975, 1978, and 2003" with 1926, 1955, 1960, 2001, and 2004 - and then pass it by far via tacking on 1942, 1957, 1964, 1981, 1995, and 1997 (and still have more bad losses if needed to be called upon).

To say that "it is balanced by 26 years winning the World Series" does not take the sting out of the heartache.

If person A had cancer for the 5th time - as did person B - would you say that person A did not have it as bad as person B because they won the lotto once and had great sex ten times more in the least year than person B?

No, good times cannot be used to offset the bad times - when the bad times are that bad.

[KCBOOMER]

Don't forget the Dodgers play-off losses in 1951 and 1962. May not be post-season technically but they are there. If two teams are basically the same in the number of losses then the number of times winning does matter. A lot.

[Jim Rice]

If 26 World Championships aren't enough to keep Yankee fans from complaining about 18 losses, please feel free to dsitribute them to other teams whose fans will appreciate them more. I guess, as was said in another Yankee-related thread, some people are just looking for excuses to bitch and moan.

[hmrsf]

To say that "it is balanced by 26 years winning the World Series" does not take the sting out of the heartache.

Good stuff Crash. I was thinking of you and wondering this very thing.

The one thing I was thinking during the killer loss (the worse game I have ever seen in Fenway 19-8), is don't let it end this way. I was fearful of going to the park for first time in my life. My team was blowing up and I knew they were better than they were showing.

Keeping the faith seemed like a sick a joke, and I felt like an idiot. Remember I am the eternal optimist. I am the one who thought the Sox were going to win the division even when they were 11 out!

This series came so close. Sitting in the park on that magical night, I was changed forever as a fan. It was one of those things where you had to be there. Seeing the season end and watching slip away.

How very easily it could have been the Yankee and not the Sox. So Steve, in a way, I do know how you feel. I lived it an out before you did. Only this time the winds of fortune changed. I am truly sorry for your loss.

[Crash Course]

Thanks.

You've touched on the point for me.

When Boston beat the Yankees in the ALCS this year, as a Yankee fan, it was upsetting (to say the least). And, thinking "well, the yankees have won 26 times" was not going to make that feeling change any for the better.

[Crash Course]

.......some people are just looking for excuses to bitch and moan.

The same could be said about Red Sox fans up until this post-season, correct?

And, if not, then to say that it was OK for the Sox to whine, but, not OK for any other team's fans to lament, is being exclusive and snobish, in a way, no?

[PianoMonkey]

Of course Yankees fans have a right to lament the loss. Every losing team and their fans do the same thing. And having won numerous championships in the past likely does little, if anything, to ease the pain.

Here's how I think about it: I'm not really directly involved, as a non-fan of both the Yankees and the Red Sox, as well as every other team but the illustrious Royals (except the White Sox--I'm an anti-fan). However, it seems to me there are two key issues here--whether winning 26 World Series can make up for 18 post-season losses, and if so, does having won 26 WS preclude the Yankees fans from expressing sorrow over losing?

To me, the answers are clear. YES!!! ... and NO!!!!!

Of course 26 WS makes up for the losses in the grand scheme of things. Yankees fans now this, as their new t-shirt slogans proudly proclaim '26>1.' Any fan who has trouble feeling pride in the history of a team that has won more than a quarter of all championships in the long history of baseball clearly needs to take a step back. No other team in the history of American sports can claim such a record. And it is likely that none ever will.

But some opposing fans' belief that Yankee fans need to "shut up" about the loss this year, or any other, is missing something important. To Yankee fans, it doesn't matter if they won the WS last year, or last century. They want to win. And when they think they are going to win, or should have won, or could have won, it hurts, just as much as it did for the Cardinals this year, or the Red Sox last year. This is fundamental to the nature of a sports fan. And while no reasonable person, IMO, could argue the Yankee's have had it as bad as the Sox (or the Cubs, or the other Sox, or the M's, etc.) as a whole, each post-season loss is just as painful for them as it is for any other. Thus, the "18 is a heck of a lot" argument has more merit, again IMO, than many would admit.

Example: Travel back with me, to the 1980 ALCS, when the righteous and mighty Royals finally toppled the evil Pinstripers in straight sets. The two bitter and hated rivals had previously met each other in the ALCS three consecutive years, from '76 to '78, and the Yanks had won each time. After Game 3, the final game of the series, the nationwide lookers-on unanimously cheered (and rightfully so--the Royals were then, and always will be, the superior franchise). Parades were thrown all across the nation in honor of the embarrasingly easy victory of the Royals. Horns honked in every state of the union after the final out was recorded. Banks closed; mass hysteria ensued. Mayor Ed Koch weeped for weeks at the demorializing loss, eventually offering millions of dollars to KC to keep the defeat a secret. Fear struck the city of New York, as the megapolis descended into a hell of crime, vice, and athletic insecurity. Many claim the city never recovered.

Actually, I have the sneaking suspicion that my memories of these events could be clouded by my not having been born yet. In any case, of course, the Royals lost the World Series to the Phillies in a rather convincing manner. This is Royals tradition.

Now at the time, most KC fans would have sworn to you this was the most painful thing that had ever happened in baseball: to finally, after five years, have slayed the mighty giant (who happened to have won the WS twice in that span), only to fail miserably once a chance at the championship--their first championship--had materialized. But was the NY fans' pain any less valid, or severe? Certainly not. While the superior team had easily brushed them aside (as better teams often do to weaklings), many New Yorkers had probably entertained the possibility of an upset. And when this hope was destroyed, a deep emotional wound was created. This blind hope, while clearly stupid and misinformed in this case, is the same in all baseball fans' hearts across the globe, and when it is denied, the pain is a universal one.

The '80 Yankees may have been doomed to lose the series from the outset (and they were), but no true baseball fan can ever accept a loss. And while The Royals still led the pack in terms of total emotional trauma over those five years, that does not imply that their pain at any point was more severe than Yankee Nation's at the end of that series.

I think I'll destump now.

[Jim Rice]

The same could be said about Red Sox fans up until this post-season, correct?

And, if not, then to say that it was OK for the Sox to whine, but, not OK for any other team's fans to lament, is being exclusive and snobish, in a way, no?

Hardly. Fans of other teams bitch and moan about their teams' losses, not because any one of them is more excrutiating for them than for any other team's fans, but because the pain is uninterrupted by success. Sox fans bitched and moaned because their ten years of post-season losses happened IN A ROW. OVER 86 YEARS. With enormous 20-something-year gaps between appearances in many cases. The Cubs are the same; 11 straight losing playoff appearances in 96 years. The Braves are working on a stretch of not only 9 consecutive playoff losses, but in consecutive years. The White Sox haven't won in 87 years, including 6 straight playoff losses. The Indians are working on a stretch of 56 years without a championship, including losses in their last 7 playoff appearances. The Astros have zero titles in 40+ years and have lost in all 8 playoff appearances. And let's not even get into the teams that have had to endure 20, 30, 40-year gaps where they didn't appear in the playoffs at all.

Since getting Ruth, Yankees fans have never gone more than 13 years between playoff appearances and have never lost more than 4 playoff appearances in a row between championships. They've had stretches of winning 7 and 8 consecutive playoff appearances without losing a series, including one point when they were in the playoffs in 18 of 31 years (58%) and won the championship in 16 of them. Ignoring all of that success and claiming the right to complain at length about four straight playoff losses, even though the same team won three straight titles only four years ago, is not going to garner my sympathy. If they lose another 4 or 5 in a row, spread out over 20 years or so, maybe bitching from Yankee fans would be legit.