On Wednesday, the Cavs lost their 26th straight game, tying the record for the longest losing streak in major pro American sports. Just behind them on the list: baseball's 1899 Cleveland Spiders. The two have more in common than a city.
Feb 10, 2011 - By 1898, the Cleveland Spiders of baseball's National League had existed for 12 seasons. While they had never won a championship, they established a tradition of winning, thanks in large part to their pitcher of nine seasons, Cy Young.
Young would later be declared not only a Hall of Famer, but one of the greatest pitchers ever to play baseball. He pitched an unreasonable number of innings -- including an incredible 453 in 1892 -- and, in large part, carried his Cleveland team on his back.
And then 1899 came. Through a series of unscrupulous business decisions, the Spiders' roster was gutted. Cy Young left to play for St. Louis, and many others followed suit. That 1899 season, Cleveland finished with 20 wins and 134 losses, which still stands as the worst season a baseball team has ever had. To punctuate the misery, the Spiders lost 24 consecutive games, including 40 of their final 41.
We now move nearly 112 years in the future to last night, when basketball's Cleveland Cavaliers played at Quicken Loans Arena, about two miles from where the Spiders used to play. The Cavs, who, of course, are missing a Cy Young of their own, lost their 26th consecutive game. They now share with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the record for the longest losing streak in the history of sports.
Thanks to Baseball-Reference and Ron Schuler's Parlour Tricks for historical information.
Curtain rises.
Daniel Gibson
Cleveland Cavaliers, 2006-present
Harry Colliflower
Cleveland Spiders, 1899
DANIEL GIBSON sits in a folding chair in the Cavaliers' clubhouse. HARRY COLLIFLOWER leans against a wall with a knife in one hand, casually peeling slices from an apple.
HARRY COLLIFLOWER. Fuji?
DANIEL GIBSON. Yes. And Braeburn. Braeburn is the best.
COLLIFLOWER. I have no idea of what you're talking about.
GIBSON. Well, how many types of apples are you familiar with?
COLLIFLOWER. Apple. That's the only one.
GIBSON. You saw what happened tonight. Did you understand it?
COLLIFLOWER. I understand that you lost. The rules by which you played... I wasn't so clear on those. I don't know why you run around and sweat on hardwood, either.
GIBSON. Why not?
COLLIFLOWER. Indoors? On hardwood? You know, I used to be a carpenter. Know how many floorboards I replaced on account of rough-housing? Running around indoors is unnatural. You may as well bathe with your boots on.
GIBSON. We lost, yes.
COLLIFLOWER. How does it feel?
GIBSON. You lost 24 straight, didn't you? You would know.
COLLIFLOWER. I would know, and that's all I would know. Surely you've been on a winning team?
GIBSON. Of course. This one, until this year.
COLLIFLOWER. You have a frame of reference, then. You have experienced winning, and so you understand losing better than I do. Do you know how I spent my twenties? I was, as I said, a carpenter who played semi-pro ball for a D.C. team. When I was 30 years old, the Spiders came to town and they needed a pitcher, so I signed up.
GIBSON. How did that go?
COLLIFLOWER. Not well!
GIBSON. So what happened?
COLLIFLOWER. My career, in entirety. I never pitched before or after that season. I was part of a team that lost 40 of its final 41 games.
GIBSON. We're close. We've lost... 34 of 35 now.
COLLIFLOWER. Right, so I ask you again, how does it feel?
GIBSON. Like I don't understand sports anymore. I don't know how games end up the way they do.
COLLIFLOWER. Well, I can't speak to the science of your sport, but there are always reasons. Perhaps if you study the records closely enough, or keep enough numbers, you will understand.
GIBSON. We have all the numbers. At least, we're getting there. We have charts and graphs and everything. We understand how games are won, but... this is hard for me to explain. Why did we beat the Knicks in December? What happened in that game that hasn't happened in any other game?
COLLIFLOWER. Well... if it were like football -- do you still have football? -- and the ball were oblong and could bounce in any direction, I would imagine that would explain it. But... what is it...
GIBSON. Basketball.
COLLIFLOWER. Yes. But when you're out there playing basketball, it looks like you are the captain of your own destiny. It's round, see? It isn't going to bounce funny. You're the captain of your own fate, I reckon.
GIBSON. You can put spin on it. Like, bounce-pass it with a little back-spin, and it'll sort of die.
COLLIFLOWER. Sure, but isn't coming off a foot of a kicker from 40 yards away. It's your pal making a conscious decision, what, five feet away?
GIBSON. I suppose.
COLLIFLOWER. I have to level with you. I was sort of hoping you all would have this figured out by now.
GIBSON. Are you under the impression that wisdom is a function of time?
COLLIFLOWER. I suppose it isn't. Not necessarily... oh Lord, I'm dragging. I need another snack. I'm on, uh...?
GIBSON. Ontario.
COLLIFLOWER. Does that young fella still run the apple cart at Ontario and Prospect?
GIBSON. Oh, I don't know.
COLLIFLOWER. You want me to pick one up for you?
GIBSON. I mean, he's probably dead now.
COLLIFLOWER. Why? How long do people live these days?
GIBSON. About 80 or 85, I guess.
COLLIFLOWER. That's it? Christ!
Mo Williams
Cleveland Cavaliers, 2008-present
Chief Zimmer
Cleveland Spiders, 1889-1899
MO WILLIAMS and CHIEF ZIMMER sit on a bench on the lakefront. ZIMMER turns behind him and looks at the freeway.
CHIEF ZIMMER. They're all... moving in the same direction.
MO WILLIAMS. The cars? Yeah.
WILLIAMS untwists the sack of bread in his lap, takes out a heel, and begins to tear it.
ZIMMER. Like a train.
WILLIAMS. I guess.
ZIMMER. Well, we've had trains for a while. What was the matter with trains? You know what the difference is between that over there and a train? A bunch of hitches to tie them all together.
WILLIAMS. Look, man. It's 2011 and we aren't in New York. When I was a little kid I saw a movie set 50 years ago in which a little kid plays with a train for like three seconds. That is seriously all I know about trains.
ZIMMER. So that's what happened to this city. There should be trains running everywhere. Cleveland is a mess. Look at that building over there. It's fallen over! How long has it been like that?
WILLIAMS. That's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
ZIMMER. I don't understand any of the words you just said. Nothing makes sense here. Well, you know what? One thing makes sense. It makes sense that your Cavaliers are losing. I'll tell you something. This was a wretched city, and it is a wretched city. It's always cloudy and cold, and the wind blowing in from the lake is unbearable.
WILLIAMS pinches a scrap of bread between his fingers and bends over his knees.
ZIMMER. The water they pump through the pipes tastes like they smashed mud through a fork. Every boss in town is lousy. They ought to burn it down. That's what they did in Chicago, and look at them now. Nobody good has ever come from Cleveland.
WILLIAMS. LeBron did, sort of.
ZIMMER. Yes, and he left for Florida, where you can sit a mug of beer outside and know that when you return in thirty seconds it won't be frozen or stolen. Wouldn't you leave? Never mind, the question is, why don't you leave?
WILLIAMS. I could ask for a trade, but that's all. I'm under contract with a player option for 2012-13. I have to wait until then.
ZIMMER. So you're... you... have to lose. Your job is to lose basketball games.
WILLIAMS. No, my job is to play basketball games.
ZIMMER. Fine, yes, and my job was to clamber down to the Earth's core each dawn and turn on the furnace. As it happened, I would get lost on the way to work every morning and find myself catching for Cleveland. Imagine that!
WILLIAMS watches as a duck snaps the bread out of his fingers.
ZIMMER. Look at what you do when you go to work. You are a loser. You lose. That is your trade. You take the hammer off your belt and you cobble together losses and you sell them to children.
WILLIAMS. I suppose that's true.
ZIMMER. It wasn't always bad for us in Cleveland. We had Cy Young, and we didn't quite finish first, but we were respectable. And then our owners -- the Robisons -- they bought a St. Louis team and gutted us dry. They "traded" everyone good to St. Louis for everyone bad.
WILLIAMS. That's terrible.
ZIMMER. We finished 84 games out of first place. 84 games. I wasn't fit for the industry of losses, so I left in the middle of the season for Louisville. I wasn't a fool.
WILLIAMS. I can't do that. I have a contract, as I said.
ZIMMER. You poor sucker. You know, I don't think creatures were meant to lose so often. In nature, if you lose a competition, you normally die. A gazelle does not lose to a lion, then wake up and give it another go the next morning.
WILLIAMS. (shrugs) Do you think it's bad for me? Losing?
ZIMMER. Well, it certainly isn't natural. Your millions of ancestors were all winners, every one, because they were at least able to survive, to reproduce. They were never afforded the opportunity to both lose and live. Therefore, they all won. That's probably why your hip is ailing. Your body can't take it. Your body can't take all the losing. It wasn't built for it. It's withering.
WILLIAMS sits up and looks toward ZIMMER.
WILLIAMS. I will either improve or decline. I will tilt one way or another, but thank God I'm going somewhere. Small things spill into larger things, and those things spill into still larger things, until a difference is made, and it really is delightful to watch all this happen. That's all you can do -- watch -- because you're black and white and dead. Enjoy yourself.
WILLIAMS groans and reaches for his hip as he stands. He bears his weight on his cane.
WILLIAMS exits.
ZIMMER stares out at the lake.
ZIMMER. Lord God, you ought to sweep this mess right into the sea. It will be as though Cleveland had never happened. Do it now, while Your mother isn't looking.
Antawn Jamison
Cleveland Cavaliers, 2009-present
Highball Wilson
Cleveland Spiders, 1899
Antawn Jamison and Highball Wilson stand in an outdoor basketball court in the South Broadway neighborhood. JAMISON dribbles a basketball.
JAMISON. Oh, yeah. Basketball was around. I don't think it had really spread around the country, though.
WILSON. So what you're doing there is dribbling.
JAMISON. Yes.
WILSON. Why? I mean, I know the rules, but why is it a rule?
JAMISON. It makes perfect sense if you think about it the right way. See, it is against the rules to move while you have possession of the ball, but very early on, players learned they could dodge the rule simply by bounce-passing the ball to their future selves.
WILSON. Oh wow, that's something.
JAMISON. The dribble is a higher concept than people give it credit for.
WILSON. But you can't stop dribbling and then start again? That isn't intuitive. You should be able to.
JAMISON. (shrugs) Basketball isn't an intuitive game. Baseball and football? We know where they were "founded," but of course, Alexander Cartwright didn't construct the game of baseball from scratch, he took centuries-old field games and established rules around them. But basketball? It was invented by a doctor in a gym.
JAMISON half-consciously begins to dribble.
His boss told him to invent a game and gave him a set of criteria to meet, and he met them by studying how other sports met them. We know who this man is, and we have photographs of him and everything. That's a lot different from a bunch of Ivy Leaguers nailing a set of rules and boundaries to an ages-old game.
WILSON. That's a pretty fundamental difference.
JAMISON. Another fundamental difference is that basketball shapes the sorts of losers you will never find elsewhere.
WILSON. Come on, now. You've lost 25 games in a row. We lost 24 games in a row. It happens, and then it ends. No reason to pass the time with self-pity.
JAMISON. It isn't self-pity. You will never, ever see a baseball or hockey team play 82 games and win only 16 of them. You will practically never see an NFL team do this. But you know what? It happened twice in the NBA last year.
WILSON. Well, in baseball, we change our teams by changing our pitchers every so often. If a pitcher has thrown 34 consecutive innings, we figure we'll get him a rest and let some other fellow chuck it around for a while. Can any similar arrangement be made in basketball?
JAMISON. Not really.
WILSON. I see.
JAMISON stops dribbling.
JAMISON. I think I'm a pretty rational person, as far as people go. I'm a lucky man who makes a lot of money, so I certainly don't deserve pity. I work hard, so I don't think I'm especially guilty of anything. And still, this irrational idea keeps creeping back. That it'll never end, that we'll never win another game.
WILSON. But you will, of course.
JAMISON. What reason do we have to expect that? Suppose you flipped a coin 25 times, and it came up tails every single time. Would you hope for heads on the 26th flip, or would you begin to suspect that something was wrong?
WILSON. You'll win. I bet you win tonight. Who do you play?
JAMISON. Detroit.
WILSON. You'll whip them. Things will be different.
JAMISON. I don't know why, but it feels nice to say that. Thanks... all right. Pistons at seven. I'd better get going. It really has been nice talking with you.
WILSON. Of course.
JAMISON exits.
SPORT MCALLISTER enters.
Sport McAllister
Cleveland Spiders, 1896-1899
SPORT MCALLISTER. Why did you tell him that? You know they aren't going to win.
WILSON. We don't know for sure.
MCALLISTER. I know for sure. The last time they played, I watched them. I didn't know the rules. I didn't know what was going on. But just as though we were Masons, we recognized one another. I saw them and knew that, while they may know the rules, they had no better understanding of the game than I did.
WILSON. You're just being dramatic.
MCALLISTER. Well, it's a pretty dramatic thing. A dozen able bodies, and a man in a suit directing them. The wood is going into the factory, but the paper isn't coming out. What in the Hell are they doing in there?
LeBron James
Cleveland Cavaliers, 2003-2010
Cy Young
Cleveland Spiders, 1890-1898
A coffee shop in Miami, Florida. LEBRON JAMES leans, arms stretched downward, over the backrest of a chair. On the other side of the table sits CY YOUNG, one arm draped over the back of his chair, the other hand fiddling with a coffee stirrer.
LEBRON JAMES. What time do you close?
BARISTA. 11:30.
JAMES. Thank you.
CY YOUNG. You want to go somewhere else?
JAMES. No. Here is good.
YOUNG. That must be the world's most interesting snuff box.
JAMES. It's a phone. Hold on...
YOUNG. There's still beer, isn't there? Can we... find a place with beer? Tea? Something for grown-ups?
JAMES. The Cavs out-shot the Pistons from the field, percentage-wise. We didn't get as many shots, though. They beat us off the offensive glass, though. And turnovers. That was why they beat us.
YOUNG. Us.
JAMES. (makes exasperated gesture with hand holding phone) Them! That was why they beat them. Hickson looked good. 15 rebounds? I wish Samuels would get some minutes, though, I like him. I really do. They should be fine without me. They have them, and Antawn, and when Mo gets back, he'll really make a name for himself there. There's no reason why they shouldn't be winning. They aren't trying hard enough. I'm not there and they want an excuse to lose. I'm gone, so they get to take it easy and lose.
(JAMES sits down at the table opposite YOUNG, arms on top, palms up.)
They should just release them all. All of them. Get rid of them. Start fresh. What you have to do is draft well. Get good draft picks. Trade for better picks if you have to. And to do that, you need scouts! More scouts, and better scouts. Get them cheap and then put good people around them, and keep them. It's like building a log cabin. You have to start from the inside out. Get the kindling first. Start it with that. Then build the big logs around it.
YOUNG. I ain't ever heard of a log cabin made of kindling.
JAMES. (bangs table with fist) A... um.
YOUNG. Campfire.
JAMES. CAMPFIRE, you start a campfire with kindling, that's the young stars, the draft picks. When they need support, you bring in a big log or two, like an Amar'e Stoudamire, get one of those big veterans around them. And then--
YOUNG. You can't go straight from kindling to logs. You need to use some sticks or something.
JAMES. Like a transition! Yes. You have to smooth the process. No more spending all this money on scouts. Fire all the scouts. Just get a good general manager who knows what you need to do to win. Find a general manager, and actually? Actually. Get him a bunch of assistants. You have to be able to be everywhere. Get him like 12 assistants, and make them all good.
YOUNG. I see. Thanks. You see, I happen to own an NBA franchise, and I wasn't sure how many assistants a general manager should have. I was thinking about maybe giving him negative-five assistants. I suppose that would mean that he would have to be an assistant to five other general managers. Thank you for your advice. I think you have saved me from making a terrible choice.
JAMES. You're making fun of me.
YOUNG waves off JAMES with one arm while taking a sip of tea with the other.
JAMES. What they did tonight wasn't my fault. Their losing streak isn't my fault, either.
YOUNG. Of course not. How could it be? You weren't even there.
JAMES. Stop that! I feel bad, and I'm a good person for feeling bad, and you're trying to turn it around on me, trying to make me feel like a bad person for feeling bad.
YOUNG. The Cavaliers, how many consecutive losses is this for them?
JAMES. Twenty-six.
YOUNG. But the team's going to exist next year, right?
JAMES. No reason to think that they wouldn't.
YOUNG. My Spiders didn't. That season, that 1899 year, it was their last year. I found another team, and so did some of the other fellas, but... Tucker? You know Tom Tucker? Suppose you wouldn't know Tom Tucker. He grew up working in a factory before he played ball. After '99, he couldn't find a spot anywhere, so he went back to that factory in New England. He probably still works there.
JAMES. It's... 2011. He's probably dead.
YOUNG. Oh, no. With the medicinal fields advancing as they tend to do, I'm sure he's... how old do people get these days?
JAMES. 80 or 85, maybe.
YOUNG. That's all? Jesus! ...That's neither here nor there. I left just before that '99 season. That was the worst season a baseball team has ever had. Maybe I was simply fortunate to leave at the right time, or maybe I was to blame for it.
JAMES. So that's why you feel guilty.
YOUNG. Ha! I never said I felt guilty. I don't know why you would, either. I left for St. Louis, which is essentially Cleveland without a lake. But you went to Miami! If there were any National League team south of St. Louis at the time, I surely would have headed there.
JAMES. Really?
YOUNG. Sure. Nothing to get shook about.
JAMES. Well... why aren't you shook about it? What makes you special?
YOUNG. The short answer is that I'm dead.
YOUNG scoots the table out from behind him and stands up.
YOUNG. The long answer isn't much longer. Good luck. I hope you... well, I hope you do all the things with basketball, and not just "basketball," but I suppose the literal, actual sort of basketball you hold in your hand, whatever you would do with such a thing, and so forth, and I really mean that.
YOUNG tips his cap and leaves.
JAMES sits down once again, clasps his hands on the table, and stares at them.
BARISTA. Sir? It's coming up on about, ah, 11:30, if you...
LEBRON JAMES. That's neat. What's that you have there?
BARISTA. It's a, uh, coffee mug.
LEBRON JAMES. That's a nice coffee mug. You have a nice coffee mug. I like that about you.
JAMES looks down and buries his face in his hands. BARISTA stares for a moment, then looks down and turns away, polishing a coffee mug dry with a towel.
Curtain falls.
1 comment
Comments
great post
hilarious man great job. if cavs cant beat the wizzle at home i dont see this streak coming to an end before the end of the season. its pressure on teams too because no one wants to be the one to give them that streak breaking win. i also feel bad for jamison thers a good post on jamison and the L streak right here – http://fingerrolls.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/antawn-jamison-pictures-are-making-people-sad/
by eli.joseph3000 on Feb 10, 2011 12:16 PM EST reply actions
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