Most readers here love the game of baseball and love our Royals, but there are some seasons that truly test us. The hitters can’t hit, the pitchers can’t throw strikes, the ball gets kicked around the field, and the losses pile up. By June, you already have an eye towards Chiefs training camp. You’re a real sicko if you’re watching a 106-loss Royals team get beat down by the Twins in front of a few hundred fans in September.
By pure losses, here are the worst seasons in Royals history:
- 2023 (106 losses) – A bad season after a long rebuild, but there seemed to be hope about the future
- 2005 (106 losses) – Tony Peña quits in the middle of the season, and the Buddy Bell era isn’t any better
- 2018 (104 losses) – The entire championship team departs, leaving a lot of “who is this guy?”
- 2004 (104 losses) – Fresh off a surprise run in 2003, this team fell flat on their face
- 2019 (103 losses) – Allowed 219 home runs, second-most in club history.
- 2006 (100 losses) – Gave up a club record 971 runs, getting Allard Baird fired
- 2002 (100 losses) – Chuck Knoblauch and Neifi Perez. Enough said.
But maybe it
was a season that was miserable for other reasons – Dick Howser’s death in 1986? The strike-shortened almost-contention of 1994? Maybe it was miserable for reasons in your personal life?
Royals fans have lived through rebuilds, retools, collapses, and the long, quiet stretches in between contention windows. So let’s ask the uncomfortable question: what was the most miserable Royals season you ever endured as a fan?
