Mission Possible: Houston Astros and the Single-Season Loss Record

If you are wondering how bad the Houston Astros are, let me paint a picture. If the teams formed to make a Monopoly board, the Houston Astros would be Baltic Avenue. Or to use a better analogy, the Houston Astros would be “Hamsterdam” from The Wire. In the show, the concept of “Hamsterdam” is to corner off all the drug dealers to an abandoned area of town. Essentially, you take all the trash that contributes nothing to society, and let natural selection work its process. The Houston Astros would put up shop in baseball’s Hamsterdam. By writing this, I am kicking a man while he is down, because I’m sure Astros’ fans know how bad their team is. However, are the Astros bad enough to break the single-season loss record? First, let’s look at the team that holds that dubious record. The 1962 Mets are the benchmark for baseball futility. Those Mets had Casey Stengal – who won multiple championships with the Yankees – as their mana...