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 |  Subject: Re: The top five all-time bad Detroit teams  Wed Dec 24, 2008 11:01 am | |
| Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Lynn Henning
The best of the worst: Lions of 2008 aren't first chumps in City of Champs
A town once hailed as the City of Champions has known its good times in sports, in earlier eras as well as during modern times (take a bow with your Stanley Cup, Red Wings).
And then there have been other, more forgettable moments and interludes in Detroit's professional sports history.
Which brings us to 2008. Specifically, to the pro football season and the somber fact Detroit's 0-15 Lions are within a Sunday afternoon's misadventure at Green Bay from enduring the worst stretch of NFL football in history.
No pro team under Detroit's flagship has ever faced such ignominy, although there have been close calls along the way, all of them replete with the pain and frustration and ridicule that this year's Lions have endured.
Assessments can be debatable as to which of Detroit's past rosters have conspired to create the worst seasons in Motown sports history. But the following teams experienced seasons that could better be described as sieges.
No unit has quite tolerated anguish on the 2008 Lions' level, but these teams and their players suffered in the extreme.
2003 Detroit Tigers
Most fans remember that the '03 Tigers (43-119) came within one defeat of matching the all-time record for losses in a season, set by the New York Mets in 1962 (40-120).
Not everyone remembers that the Tigers had to win five of their last six games to avoid tying manager Casey Stengel's not-so-amazing Mets. The '03 Tigers were so desperate to avoid sharing in a sorry slice of sports history that they even overcame an 8-0 deficit against the Twins on the next-to-the-last day of the season to win, 9-8.
It was a horrid season, for sure. Alan Trammell's managerial inaugural began with the Tigers losing their first nine games and things didn't get a lot better afterward.
The pitching rotation was Mike Maroth, Nate Cornejo, Adam Bernero, a 20-year-old rookie named Jeremy Bonderman, Gary Knotts and/or Nate Robertson. Bullpen considerations ranged from Jamie Walker and Steve Sparks to Matt Anderson, Franklyn German and a trio of Rule 5 pitchers: Wilfredo Ledezma, Chris Spurling and Matt Roney.
The everyday lineup was a hit-or-miss group that too often missed: Gene Kingsale, Alex Sanchez, Ramon Santiago, Bobby Higginson, Dean Palmer, Shane Halter, Craig Monroe, Eric Munson, Warren Morris, Carlos Pena, etc.
At the end of the season, owner Mike Ilitch vowed to spend money for free agents that would turn the Tigers from a quasi-Triple A club to a legitimate big-league team. And it happened as the Tigers, with fresh free-agent talent, jumped to 72-90 in 2004.
1979 Detroit Lions
Fortunately for coach Monte Clark's team, there was that 24-23 squeaker of a victory over Atlanta in Week 4.
Otherwise, the Lions would have been 0-12 heading into Thanksgiving Day and on their way to matching that 0-14 mess the expansion-fresh Tampa Bay Buccaneers had crafted in 1976.
But then the Lions beat the Bears, 20-0, at the Silverdome to push their record to 2-11. It was as good as it would get during a sadistic autumn. The Lions lost their final three games in Clark's second year, which was no surprise to NFL talent evaluators.
Doug English, a defensive tackle on that year's teams and one of the steadiest of the Lions stalwarts during the '70s-80s era, watches this year's team from his ranch in Spicewood, Texas, and is re-connected with some old pain.
"It's like a recurring nightmare -- it brings it forward to me like it was yesterday," English said. "I hurt for those guys on the team. I've gotta tell you, if I didn't see those guys still fighting and being close in almost every game they played, and making big plays on special teams and doing things that hard-working teams try and do, I wouldn't feel so bad for them. But those guys on this team are working very, very hard, and it makes it heartbreaking for me."
As for Detroit's '79 plight, the season became such a trial that English retired at age 26, only to make a comeback in 1981 after his body and mind had healed. He played five more seasons.
"Monte came in and did a pretty drastic overhaul," English remembers. "He cut a lot of guys and by that second season had vanquished the team of a lot of experienced players, and then we had some injuries, too. It put a lot of inexperienced players on the field all at once. I think if you ask Monte he might have moved a little too fast, although maybe not. That next year's draft filled a lot of holes."
Among the '79 cast, Jeff Komlo started 14 games at quarterback, with Joe Reed and the immortal Jerry Golsteyn splitting starts in the other two games. Dexter Bussey and Rick Kane were the featured running backs. Freddie Scott, Leonard Thompson and David Hill were primary receivers. Russ Bollinger and Keith Dorney were the most capable of Detroit's offensive linemen, while on defense there were the likes of English, Bubba Baker, Luther Bradley, James Hunter, Dave Pureifory, Ken Fantetti, Luther Bradley, and Garry Cobb.
The kicking was solid: Tom Skladany at punter and Benny Ricardo handling field goals and extra points.
None of the plus-players was sufficiently skilled to keep the Lions from being last in the NFL in scoring differential (9.1 points per game), last in scoring (13.7), and last in takeaway-giveaway differential. They were 23rd of 28 teams in defense.
Their lamentable 2-14 record would be matched by the 2001 Lions, who it might be argued were worse than the '79 gang, except that the '01 Lions split their last four games to have then offered at least the illusion of competency.
The '79 Lions, in fact, made the bigger turnaround. A year later they welcomed running back Billy Sims and finished 9-7, coming within a couple of heartbreaking late-season losses of making the playoffs as one of the league's more interesting teams.
1979-80 Detroit Pistons
The coach, a guy named Dick Vitale, got fired 12 games into the season, replaced by Richie Adubato. The Pistons were 10-31 at midseason, at which point their relative hot streak ended.
They were 6-35 the rest of the way, including a 2-29 finish made possible by losing their final 14.
"We were no more than an expansion team," said Gregory Kelser, then a Pistons rookie who played in only 50 games that season because of an ankle sprain.
Bob Lanier was there, at least initially. But the Dobber was traded to Milwaukee in February for Kent Benson and the Bucks' first-round draft pick in 1980.
Otherwise, the cast was comprised of Bob McAdoo (only 51 games because of injury), Leon Douglas, Eric Money, Ron Lee (acquired in a trade for James McElroy), and all those kids: Kelser, Roy Hamilton, John Long, Terry Duerod, Phil Hubbard, Earl Evans, etc.
"We played hard and the best we could," said Kelser, whom Vitale had drafted in June of '79 after paying $50,000 to the Bucks to switch draft positions, at which point Milwaukee drafted the player it preferred, Sidney Moncrief. "We knew a lot of times our best wasn't going to be good enough unless they (opponents) were well off their games.
"It wasn't so much that we weren't winning. We weren't equipped to win."
1976-77 Detroit Red Wings
Alex Delvecchio, that great Production Line alum, deserved better.
But at least he went 13-26-5 before departing as head coach during an excruciating winter
His "successor," Larry Wilson, finished out the year to the tune of a 3-29-4 effort that pretty much underscored how bad things had turned during the waning years of owner Bruce Norris' tenure in Detroit.
The '76-77 Wings were 16-55-9. It was the worst of days back then, while the best of days have now been part of the Wings' reality show the past decade and-a-half.
You might guess that rosters have changed for the better.
The Red Wings lacked not for effort in the mid-'70s, thanks to Nick Libett, Dennis Hextall, Walt McKechnie, and goalie Jim Rutherford, who became the NHL's version of St. Sebastian for all the projectiles he absorbed.
But the rest of the cast, at varying degrees of NHL proficiency, told the story: Michel Bergeron, Bill Lochead, Dan Maloney, Buster Harvey, Dennis Polonich, Jim Nahrgang, Rick Lapointe, Al Cameron, Jean Hamel, Bryan Watson, Reed Larson, etc.
Eddie Giacomin, at age 37, played in 33 games and fared about as well as Rutherford, which is to say he at least survived.
Detroit's dubious bad-season contenders
• 2001 Detroit Lions: They were 0-12 before knocking off the Vikings, 27-24, at the Silverdome. Marty Mornhinweg's first season as coach (and Matt Millen's as president and general manager) ended with a 15-10 strangling of the Cowboys at the Silverdome. Prime-time players, as it were, included: quarterbacks Charlie Batch, Mike McMahon and Ty Detmer; running backs James Stewart, Lamont Warren and Cory Schlesinger; wide receivers Johnnie Morton, Desmond Howard, Germane Crowell and David Sloan. As for defense, there was precious little of it on a team that gave up an average of 26.5 points. The group included Robert Porcher, Tracy Scroggins, Shaun Rogers, Chris Claiborne, Stephen Boyd, Todd Lyght and Bryant Westbrook. Little did that year's beleaguered group realize that tougher times were coming a scant seven years down the road.
• 1980-81 Detroit Red Wings: As broadcaster Dick Enberg would say, oh my. Ted Lindsay stayed as head coach for 20 games until turning matters over to Wayne Maxner, who put the finishing touches on a 19-43-18 odyssey that all but shut the lights out on Norris' reign as owner. Mike Ilitch bought the Red Wings a year later and thus began a slow, steady turnaround, which was what the roster mandated. It had its bright lights here and there (Dale McCourt, John Ogrodnick, Mike Foligno, Reed Larson), but a line shift back then was a perilous event for the Red Wings, who had no depth on offense, let alone on defense, unless you considered Willie Huber or Jim Korn to be bastions of blue-line resistance. In goal, the unfortunate souls were Gilles Gilbert and Larry Lozinski, with empathetic fill-in duty provided by the always-gallant Jim Rutherford.
• 1952 Detroit Tigers: Fortunately, Al Kaline missed this experience. He would not arrive until 1953, which spared him the trauma of Detroit's 50-104 season, overseen by manager Red Rolfe and, after Rolfe's departure, Fred Hutchinson. The pitching wasn't half-bad. In fact, Virgil Trucks threw a pair of no-hitters that summer, which is an interesting way to win 40 percent of the five games for which he was credited with a victory. He was joined by Art Houtteman, Ted Gray, Bill Wight, and Hal Newhouser, who was 31 that season and 9-9 with a 3.74 ERA. But the lineup was, well, challenged: Walt Dropo, Jerry Priddy, Joe Ginsberg, Fred Hatfield, Johnny Groth, and not enough other help to withstand a tough summer at what was then Briggs Stadium.
• 1985-86 Detroit Red Wings: Even had Steve Yzerman not wrecked a knee and played in only 51 games, the '85-86 Red Wings were headed for the ditch. It explains why Harry Neale lasted only 35 games (8-23-4) before turning matters over to Brad Park as the Wings wheezed to a halt with a 17-57-6 record. John Ogrodnick had 38 goals and Petr Klima had 32. In the nets, the victims were, at various times, Greg Stefan, Mark LaForest, Eddie Mio and Corrado Micalef. The following autumn, Jacques Demers arrived as coach in tandem with a healthy Yzerman and better support. The Red Wings doubled their victory totals and a team from Detroit began to assume a long and enduring profile as one of the NHL's premier clubs.
• Tie: 1980-81 Pistons and 1965-66 Pistons: Not much chance a team would finish better than 21-61 with this roster: Phil Hubbard, Terry Tyler, Kent Benson, Keith Herron, John Long, Paul Mokeski, Wayne Robinson, Larry Drew, Ron Lee, etc. The Pistons coached that 1980-81 season by Scotty Robertson were a tattered crew a year before Isiah Thomas and Kelly Tripucka joined and helped to infuse the team with fresh talent. The '65-66 Pistons embodied some troubled times under then-owner Fred Zollner and were likewise limited, which explained their 25-58 record under player-coach Dave DeBusschere. DeBusschere was the star, of course, which was no reason for him to have been coaching, but life was different back then at Cobo Hall. He managed to glue things together with the help of Joe Strawder, Tom VanArsdale, Ray Scott, Eddie Miles, Bill Buntin, John Tresvant, etc., but nothing about the NBA or the Pistons from the '60s resembles the state of the game today. And, for that, Detroit's basketball fans offer unending thanks.
You can reach Lynn Henning at lynn.henning@detnews.com | |
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