"Setting a record" generally has a positive connotation around it, in that you love to talk about certain teams or athletes rewriting the history of the sport in which they participate. However, not all records are ones that you want to own, including the one that the Arizona Diamondbacks happened to break on Thursday night in their 10-3 loss to the red-hot Giants, completing a four-game sweep.
That loss was their 14th in a row... but it gets worse. It was also the 23rd consecutive away game that they dropped, stripping the title away from two teams — the 1943 Philadelphia Athletics and the 1963 Mets — who were more than happy to give it away. Here's the full list of road losing streaks that lasted at least 18 games, of which there haven't been very many, courtesy of Stathead:
But hey, now that the record no longer belongs to the Mets, it'll be fun to look back on that awesome 1963 squad — which, thanks to 1962, isn't remembered as much for being awful — and all the guys who were able to make such a dismal run possible.
Responsible for six of those losses was Roger Craig, the three-time World Series champion thanks to the Dodgers, who had a not-awful 4.14 ERA in his two seasons with the Mets. Unfortunately, that ERA led to a 15-46 record, and when looking at the run support, it wasn't all too hard to see why. In those six losses that took place during the horrendous 22-game away losing streak, his offensive support was as follows: 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0. You thought deGrom had it bad? Poor Craig couldn't buy any help.
Speaking of the offense, the Mets slashed .210/.268/.287 on the road over the course of the 1963 season and scored 225 runs in those 81 games which, to no one's surprise, ranked last in the league. A far-past-his-prime Duke Snider led the way on offense with his team-leading .746 OPS, which was good for 59th in the majors. That's right... the team's best overall offensive player couldn't even crack the top 50. Yikes. We also remember such memorable performers as first baseman Tim Harkness (.211/.290/.339) and shortstop Al Moran (.193/.274/.230), the latter of whom posted a bottom-10 slugging percentage for any player with over 300 at-bats since 1950.
For all the tough breaks that Mets fans can complain about this year, at least they can be thankful it's not 1963.
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