The National League didn’t do its expansion teams any favors in 1969.
The San Diego Padres and Montreal Expos were offered a variety of castoff veterans and inexperienced minor leaguers in the expansion draft, guaranteeing their swift descents to last place in their respective divisions.
The Padres suffered a six-game losing streak during the first 10 days of the season. Other prolonged dry spells plagued the months to come — seven consecutive defeats in late May, 11 straight losses in late June, a streak of nine losses from late July to early August, and another run of 10 straight defeats later in August.
The Expos weren’t quite as erratic. They endured only five streaks of five defeats or more during the 1969 season, though their worst stretch was a doozy. They lost every single game from May 13 through June 7 — 20 defeats in all.
It’s no surprise to learn that these two clubs rank among the worst in the half-decade from 1966 through 1970, based on my calculations of team scores. (Click here to learn more about TS, which is plotted on an equalized 100-point scale.)
The 1969 Padres are dead-last in the five-year period with a score of 10.456 points. The 1967 New York Mets are next at 14.743 points, and the 1969 Expos are third-worst with a TS of 15.677.
Rounding out the bottom five for the half-decade are the 1970 Chicago White Sox and the 1966 Mets.
This is the second installment in a series of stories about the worst teams of the Modern Era, which runs from 1961 to the present. New stories every Monday will cover successive five-year spans. (Click here to see last week’s look at 1961-1965.)
Scroll down for a list of 1966-1970’s 10 worst clubs. Each is listed with its win-loss record and its Modern Era percentile, which is the percentage of all 1,656 clubs between 1961 and 2022 that the given team outperformed. Team scores and additional facts and figures are provided for the half-decade’s five worst clubs.
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1. San Diego Padres (1969)
Record: 52-110
Team score: 10.456 points
Modern Era percentile: 0.8%
Manager: Preston Gomez
Stars: Joe Niekro and Al Santorini led the pitching staff with eight wins apiece. Both posted ERAs below 4.00 — Niekro at 3.70, Santorini at 3.95. First baseman Nate Colbert hit 24 homers and drove home 66 runs, topping the Padres in both categories.
Bottom line: San Diego ran up a respectable 15-18 record through May 11, but it sank into last place in the National League West before the end of the month, never to rise any higher. The Padres suffered their 100th loss on September 13 and finished with 110 defeats.
2. New York Mets (1967)
Record: 61-101
Team score: 14.743 points
Modern Era percentile: 1.7%
Manager: Wes Westrum and Salty Parker
Stars: Rookie pitcher Tom Seaver was, well, terrific. He somehow amassed a 16-13 record on a club that otherwise went 45-88. His ERA of 2.76 was 10th-best in the National League, clinching him the Rookie of the Year Award. Left fielder Tommy Davis batted .302.
Bottom line: The Mets had finally emerged from last place in 1966, finishing ninth in the National League after ending their first four seasons in the 10th spot. They regressed in 1967, sinking back into the basement. New York lagged 40.5 games behind NL champion St. Louis.
3. Montreal Expos (1969)
Record: 52-110
Team score: 15.677 points
Modern Era percentile: 2.4%
Manager: Gene Mauch
Stars: Right fielder Rusty Staub became a cult hero in Montreal, thanks in large part to his team-leading .302 batting average. He also topped the Expos with 29 home runs. Bill Stoneman pitched a no-hitter in the ninth game of the season. He paced the staff with 11 wins.
Bottom line: Last place was familiar territory for Mauch, who had managed the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies, the second-worst club in last Monday’s 1961-1965 rankings. That earlier team famously lost 23 games in a row. Mauch’s Expos came close with their 20-game losing streak from mid-May to early June.
4. Chicago White Sox (1970)
Record: 56-106
Team score: 17.195 points
Modern Era percentile: 3.3%
Manager: Don Gutteridge, Bill Adair, and Chuck Tanner
Stars: Pitcher Tommy John went 12-17 with a respectable 3.27 ERA. Reliever Wilbur Wood notched 21 saves. Aging shortstop Luis Aparicio could still hit, as evidenced by his .313 batting average.
Bottom line: The White Sox had come within three games of the American League pennant three seasons earlier, but they were no longer competitive by 1970. Chicago finished last in the AL West, nine games behind a pair of second-year expansion teams (Kansas City and Milwaukee) and 42 games behind division leader Minnesota.
5. New York Mets (1966)
Record: 66-95
Team score: 19.679 points
Modern Era percentile: 4.7%
Manager: Wes Westrum
Stars: Second baseman Ron Hunt batted a solid .288 and qualified for the National League’s All-Star team. Three starting pitchers tied for the staff lead by winning 11 games apiece: Dennis Ribant (3.20 ERA), Jack Fisher (3.68), and Bob Shaw (3.92).
Bottom line: Climbing to ninth place gave the Mets a reason for optimism, since it was the best finish in their five-year history. But the club wrapped up the season with a 19-40 record from August 1 onward, hardly an encouraging trend.
Next five
6. Kansas City Athletics (1967), 62-99, 4.8%
7. Chicago Cubs (1966), 59-103, 5.3%
8. Washington Senators (1968), 65-96, 5.5%
9. San Diego Padres (1970), 63-99, 6.8%
10. Philadelphia Phillies (1970), 73-88, 10.1%