The Rockies’ Ryan McMahon, center, reacts after striking out in the eighth inning of a game against the Yankees on Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Denver.

Losers, who already didn’t have much going for them, are now no longer lovable.

Like, remember the 1962 New York Mets? They were so bad, they became almost like a cartoon — just how wacky will things end up today? The expansion Mets finished 40-120, and their futility was captured in Ken Burns’ documentary “Baseball,” during which we learned of “Marvelous” Marv Throneberry, “who was marvelous at nothing”; Harry Chiti, who became the “player to be named later” in the original trade for himself; and Elio Chacon, who couldn’t stop colliding into teammates.

The eager infielder Chacon spoke little English and kept running into the center fielder because, as the story goes, Chacon didn’t understand, “I got it!” So the center fielder learned the Spanish phrase, “Yo la tengo.” Soon enough, there was a fly into shallow left-center. The center fielder screamed, “Yo la tengo!” A pleasantly surprised Chacon stopped in his tracks — but the left fielder ran over the center fielder.

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Now, perhaps because it was an expansion team — and just a different time — there was a little leniency and the team’s identity leaned toward lovable. But today’s losers are, merely, losers. And there are so many of them! A litany of losers.

And it’s bad for baseball that its bad teams are this bad. And that there are this many particularly bad teams. Like, the 2025 White Sox entered Monday with just 17 wins, 17 games out of first place — and that’s not even the worst team in baseball. And while the perennially pathetic Marlins and Pirates are at it again, baseball’s worst team is Colorado, a franchise redefining ineptitude. The Rockies set the MLB record for worst record after 50 games (8-42). And following Monday’s loss, Colorado is now 9-45.

As for the state of baseball in 2025, then throw in the fact that two other teams are playing in literal minor league ballparks, and well, our proud pastime appears to have gone “mom and pop.”

Incidentally, there is another team with a horrid record this season — the Baltimore Orioles, who are 19-34, even with their win Monday against the Cardinals. But at least the Orioles, one could surmise, care. They entered the season with high hopes and, thus, fired their manager this month. They also have some injury issues. But the other “un-feared foursome” doesn’t have many excuses. Those guys just stink — and they don’t seem to mind. Not the players, of course. But the owners.

And the current collective bargaining agreement isn’t up until after the 2026 season, so nothing is going to change in the next couple of years. Maybe a salary cap (doubt it happens) or a salary floor (now that’s something) could alter the competitive landscape in 2027 and beyond. But at least for this year and next year, putridness prevails.

And we sure had some last year, too. The aforementioned forlorn franchise on Chicago’s South Side went 41-121, thus setting the record for most losses (the 40-120 Mets of ‘192 only played 160 games — incidentally, their first game was a loss at St. Louis, 11-4, as Julian Javier went 4 for 5).

And the White Sox aren’t much better in 2025. Just this week, I saw a portable toilet with a big sign that said “CWS” — I chuckled at how fitting this was, though it turned out its Charlenes Waste Services out of Wentzville.

The problem is the owners don’t have desire or incentive to spend — and the other passionate owners can’t do much about these jokers. I would love for MLB executives to think outside the box and come up with ways for force franchise sales — and we haven’t even mentioned the owner of the Athletics, who has been historically cheap for decades (and then moved the team out of Oakland!).

In Colorado, where I was previously a sports columnist, I watched as owner Dick Monfort fumbled season after season. Fans and journalists implored him to hire leadership from the outside, but he said in July 2014: “If someone from another organization came in, they would want to bring other personnel with them, and that would change the Rockies’ culture.”

To which I wrote: THAT’S THE POINT!

More than a decade later, the old boss is the same as the old boss. Monfort keeps promoting from within. And from 2011 until 2025, the Rockies have had only two winning seasons. They don’t develop prospects well (even hitters, who should thrive in the altitude of Coors Field), they failed with their Kris Bryant contract, they can’t solve the pitching problem, they don’t make smart trades at the deadline for prospects and the Nolan Arenado trade looms financially and symbolically.

And now, in 2025, we’re witnessing history.

The Rockies lost 103 games in 2023 and 101 games in 2024, but this year, they’re on pace to chase the all-time record for losses. Not just the record of the Mets from the modern era. We’re talking 19th century — the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who went 20-134.

The Rockies (and White Sox and Marlins and Pirates and even the Orioles) affect competitive balance and weaken the product that is Major League Baseball. Of course, every league in every sport has a few bad franchises every year. But this year in baseball, there is a chasm from the bad teams to even just the average teams. It’s a bad look. And bad for business (except in Colorado, where the fans just keep showing up because the ballpark is beautiful and is, essentially, just a big bar sitting in the middle of the popular bar district).

Meanwhile, the Pirates have the National League’s best young pitcher (Paul Skenes) and one of the NL’s better young hitters (Oneil Cruz) but don’t seem hungry to bring in reinforcements. The Marlins are just a Miami afterthought. And the White Sox? The only good going for them is that the new pope is a fan.

But that also shows just how bad the White Sox are — even Leo XIV can’t save these guys ... or, if anything, at least get them to save situations.

In the wake of three managerial firings before Memorial Day, author and longtime baseball writer Scott Miller joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to discuss his new book, "Skipper: Why Baseball Managers Matter (and Always Will)". In his deeply reported work, Miller talks with managers, both current and past, to map the changing landscape of the role as front offices and analytics become more dominant and a perception grips the game that, as Miller writes it so well, lineups are being written for the manager not by the manager.

With BPIB host and baseball writer Derrick Goold, Miller discusses the evolution of managers in the game from Sparky to Tony to Bochy, the traits that make a successful manager, and also how those traits have changed and adapted to a game driven more and more by data and run like the big business it is.

The two baseball writers also explore what happens to game if, as one executive told Miller in his book, the hiring practices and analytics used in the game leave the majors "with a very homogenous group of managers."

The managerial aspirations of Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and others are explored as a way to avoid that.

Miller has covered baseball for the New York Times, Bleacher Report, and many other outlets, and his book shows the depth of his understanding in the game and access to some of the great managers. He watches a Yankee game at the Boone house as Aaron manages; he spends time with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on the job and with Hall of Fame-bound manager Dusty Baker at the vineyard. Miller also talks with former Cardinals manager Mike Matheny and gains welcome perspective on his tenure during a changing time for the role.

Miller's book is available now.

On Amazon .

At a local independent bookstore like St. Louis' Left Bank Books .

The Best Podcast in Baseball, sponsored by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a weekly production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com , and Derrick Goold.