WIN, PLACE, OR BLOW

by Stamos, Brahsome

While we usually reserve gambling stories for our resident Brahsome handicapper Fancypants, we couldn't wait for his take here. Dona Chepa, a 9 year old mare from Puerto Rico, lost it's 125th straight race Wednesday, breaking the 24 year old record formerly held by Australian horse Ouroene. Dona Chepa, which we can only assume translates loosely to "Holy Sh*t, I'm Slow", has career earnings totalling $12,921 despite finishing out of the money altogether in 90 of the 125 races. Born from a long line of champion horses, Dona Chepa came closest to victory in May of 2003 when she finished 2nd.

Dona Chepa's streak got us thinking about the greatest all-time losers.

We decided to select the biggest losers from baseball, football, basketball, and boxing. We refused to do hockey because, well, all hockey teams are losers. Here are the results:

Baseball- 1962 New York Mets. With a winning percentage of .250, they have the 4th worst single season record of all time. However, we chose them for two reasons- one, no one that reads this can possibly remember the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, the 1916 Philadephia A's, or the 1935 Boston Braves- and two, Stamos loves the Mets. The Mets would turn things around, though, and win the World Series just 7 years later.

Football- 1976 Tampa Bay Bucs. Well this was too easy. While going 0-14, The Bucs were shut out five times and averaged fewer than nine points per game. Their defense didn't help any, as their margin of defeat was 20 points per game. Tampa Bay's quarterback, The 'Ol Ball Coach, threw only seven touchdown passes all season while completing no passes over 36 yards. The Bucs carried their losing ways into the following year, losing another 12 to begin their franchise history with 26 straight Ls.

Basketball- 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers. Despite having arguably the greatest team of all time, featuring Wilt Chamberlain, Hal Greer, and Billy Cunningham, and setting the then record for single season wins just 6 years earlier, this 76ers team was dreadful. They had losing streaks of 15 and 20 games in the same season. Following the 20 game skid, the team record was 4-58 and they'd lost 34 of 35 games. They finished the season with a 9-73 record, a cool 59 games behind the division leading Celtics.

Boxing- Bruce "The Mouse" Strauss. You might stumble across Strauss' record and not feel he deserves this distinction: 76 wins, 53 losses and 5 draws (ties), with 54 knockout wins and 28 knockout losses. However, when you discover that he also fought under the alias of Ruben Bardot, it's estimated he may have lost over 150 fights by knockout. He's also been knocked out on every continent except the North Pole, and holds the record for shortest fight ever- 11 second KO in the 1st round, including the 10 count.

Think we made a bad choice or omitted a bigger loser? Holla back in the comments section or shoot us an e-mail at blog@brahsome.com

(Originally published 9/20)