ST. LOUIS – For more perspective on just how disappointing this St. Louis Cardinals season has been to this point, they could be in jeopardy of finishing last place in the National League for the first time since World War I. But that’s not all.
In the 21st century, there has never been one time an MLB season that ended with two teams from the same state holding the worst records in the National League and the American League. The St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals could potentially become the first pair to attain some dooming history.
The St. Louis Cardinals enter the weekend with a 27-42 record, one game behind the Washington Nationals for the NL cellar. The Kansas City Royals enter the weekend with an 18-50 record, half a game behind the Oakland Athletics for the AL cellar.
If the Cardinals and Royals somehow can’t get out of their last-place spots by their 162nd games, they would be the first duo of teams from the same state (Missouri) to hold the American League’s and National League’s worst record at a season’s end since the 1990s.
The most recent time this happened was 1998. The then-called Florida Marlins finished with a MLB-worst and NL-worst 54-108 record. The then-called Tampa Bay Devil Rays finished with an AL-worst 63-99 record, only better than the Marlins in all of baseball.
Both teams were based in the state of Florida and remain based in the Sunshine State to this date. This came in Tampa Bay’s inaugural season as an expansion franchise. It also followed the 1997 World Series championship for the Marlins, who quickly dismantled their team of championship caliber players for a rebuild. So given the context of it, it’s not too surprising.
At one point in May, baseball stats enthusiast Jay Cuda pointed out that the state of Florida had the best winning percentage among states with at least two MLB teams. The Rays and Marlins have combined for an 88-53 record through mid-June, good for a .624 winning percentage. The next closest state (Texas) has a .591 winning percentage between the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, though both squads are based in the American League.
Then after Pennsylvannia, New York, Ohio, California and Illinois, there’s Missouri. Among eight states with multiple teams, Missouri by far has the worst winning percentage right now.
The Cardinals and the Royals have a combined 45-92 record as the halfway point of the season nears. Right now, that results in a .328 winning percentage, a mark that looks more like a batting average than what two MLB-level ball clubs should represent.
It’s somewhat of a rare occurrence that two teams from the same state might have the worst records in the AL and NL simultaneously at the end of a season. After all, among those eight states, only six have teams in opposite leagues of MLB.
The Cardinals open a road trip with three games against the New York Mets before three against the second-to-last place NL Washington Nationals. The Royals host the Los Angeles Angels for three this weekend before heading to the Motor City to take on the Detroit Tigers, who have the third-worst AL record, but are 10 games ahead of Kansas City.