Red Sox 1-36: 20 is for…

Longest Red Sox losing streak, 20 games 5/1/06-5/24/06

Wow. That’s a long time to not win a game, isn’t it?

This streak occurred between May 1 and May 26, 1906. That’s pretty bad. That’s almost the entire month of May before getting a win. Kind of puts September of 2011 into perspective, eh?

I’ve always said that streaks alone don’t mean anything to me. You can’t say, “The 1906 team was bad because they lost 20 in a row.” But, you can say, “The 1906 Sox were so bad, they even lost 20 in a row.” So, were the Sox bad that year? Yes. Yes they were. They went 49-105 that season. They finished 45.5 games out of first. While none of those are records, they’re still pretty pathetic.

What’s surprising is that that team would be so bad. This was a team that won the World Series in 1903, and won the AL in 1904 when there was no series. Two years later they’re losing 100 games. Three members of the Red Sox Hall of Fame were on that team, including two (Jimmy Collins and Cy Young) who ended up in Cooperstown. Sure, they were older by then, but they were there. (Young, that season, only won 13 games…but completed 28)

Was this the worst Red Sox team ever? Nah. But, the schedule and the circumstances conspired to give them the longest losing streak in Red Sox history.

20 is for losing 20 games in a row in 1906.