Fans of the Detroit Tigers have enjoyed some wonderful seasons.
Like 1968, when their club roared back from a three-to-one deficit in the World Series, upending the St. Louis Cardinals in a tightly fought Game Seven. Or 1984, when the Tigers led the American League East wire to wire, capping their success with another world championship. Or 2006 and 2012, when they took home a pair of AL pennants just six years apart.
But there have been some terrible seasons in Detroit, too.
The 1996 Tigers were the very worst club in baseball’s entire Modern Era, based on my calculations of team scores (TS) for all 1,626 clubs that played between 1961 and 2021.
And that’s not all. The 2003 Tigers were the era’s second-worst team, according to my rankings, while Detroit’s 1989 squad was fifth-worst.
A quick refresher: I calculate TS with a formula that gives equal weight to four factors: winning percentage, the differential between runs scored and allowed per game, the differential between bases per out (BPO) attained by batters and allowed by pitchers, and postseason success. It’s plotted on a 100-point scale.
Team scores are equalized from season to season, thereby allowing easy comparisons. It’s fair to conclude, for example, that a 1983 club with a TS of 67.000 was substantially better than a 2006 team with a TS of 53.000.
Or, in this case, we can honestly say that the 1996 Tigers (TS 5.197) were slightly worse than the 2003 Tigers (7.040) — and definitely worse than everybody else. No other big-league club in any season after 1960 posted a team score lower than 7.550.
The strange thing about the Tigers is that they deteriorated so rapidly after their miraculous title in 1984. Two of their truly terrible seasons — 1989 and the ultimate disaster of 1996 — came within a dozen years of their World Series triumph over the San Diego Padres.
Hall of Famer Alan Trammell was the only big name from 1984 who was still around in 1996, though he played just 66 games in what would be his final season. Manager Sparky Anderson had retired the previous fall. He said he was leaving because the game seemed to have changed, and not for the better. Skeptics insisted that the Tigers’ top brass had pushed him out.
If so, they did him a favor. A 12-game losing streak in May 1996 set the stage for a dismal season for new manager Buddy Bell. Another 12-game skid in September wrapped things up. The Tigers lost games in bunches all year, suffering nine losing streaks of five games or longer. The final dispiriting numbers: 109 defeats, 6.81 runs allowed per game (the worst mark for any pitching staff since 1961), and that truly horrible TS of just 5.197.
The Tigers slowly improved after their 1996 debacle, only to stumble once again. They lost 119 games in 2003, 10 more than in ’96, though their other statistics were a bit more presentable. Their TS of 7.040 was also slightly better, yet a long, long way from the high-water mark of 97.109 set by those hallowed 1984 Tigers.
Scroll down to see a rundown of the 25 worst ballclubs of the Modern Era, the bottom 1.5% of all 1,626 teams that took the field. I provide additional stats for the 10 with the very lowest scores, followed by a quick list of the next 15.
Subscribe — free — to Baseball’s Best (and Worst)
A new installment will arrive in your email each Tuesday and Friday morning
1. Detroit Tigers (1996)
TS: 5.197
Record: 53-109 (.327)
Games behind: 39 (AL East)
Runs scored per game: 4.83
Runs allowed per game: 6.81
2. Detroit Tigers (2003)
TS: 7.040
Record: 43-119 (.265)
Games behind: 47 (AL Central)
Runs scored per game: 3.65
Runs allowed per game: 5.73
3. Pittsburgh Pirates (2010)
TS: 7.550
Record: 57-105 (.352)
Games behind: 34 (NL Central)
Runs scored per game: 3.62
Runs allowed per game: 5.35
4. New York Mets (1963)
TS: 8.162
Record: 51-111 (.315)
Games behind: 48 (NL)
Runs scored per game: 3.09
Runs allowed per game: 4.78
5. Detroit Tigers (1989)
TS: 8.859
Record: 59-103 (.364)
Games behind: 30 (AL East)
Runs scored per game: 3.81
Runs allowed per game: 5.04
6. Philadelphia Phillies (1961)
TS: 8.887
Record: 47-107 (.305)
Games behind: 46 (NL)
Runs scored per game: 3.77
Runs allowed per game: 5.14
7. New York Mets (1965)
TS: 9.282
Record: 50-112 (.309)
Games behind: 47 (NL)
Runs scored per game: 3.02
Runs allowed per game: 4.59
8. Baltimore Orioles (1988)
TS: 9.850
Record: 54-107 (.335)
Games behind: 34.5 (AL East)
Runs scored per game: 3.42
Runs allowed per game: 4.90
9. Cleveland Indians (1991)
TS: 9.976
Record: 57-105 (.352)
Games behind: 34 (AL East)
Runs scored per game: 3.56
Runs allowed per game: 4.69
10. New York Mets (1962)
TS: 10.038
Record: 40-120 (.250)
Games behind: 60.5 (NL)
Runs scored per game: 3.83
Runs allowed per game: 5.89
Next 15
11. San Diego Padres (1973), 60-102, TS 10.185
12. New York Mets (1964), 53-109, TS 10.277
13. Arizona Diamondbacks (2004), 51-111, TS 10.445
14. San Diego Padres (1969), 52-110, TS 10.456
15. Houston Astros (2013), 51-111, TS 10.531
16. Kansas City Royals (2005), 56-106, TS 10.715
17. Baltimore Orioles (2021), 52-110, TS 11.059
18. Houston Astros (2011), 56-106, TS 11.311
19. Oakland Athletics (1979), 54-108, TS 11.385
20. Texas Rangers (1972), 54-100, TS 11.812
21. Texas Rangers (1973), 57-105, TS 12.786
22. Atlanta Braves (1988), 54-106, TS 12.913
23. Florida Marlins (1998), 54-108, TS 12.978
24. Detroit Tigers (1975), 57-102, TS 13.022
25. Toronto Blue Jays (1981), 37-69, TS 13.370