Detroit's pro sports teams have suffered historic losses in 21st century

Towards the end of an 18-year playoff drought from 1988-2005, the Detroit Tigers followed up a 55-106 campaign in 2002 with an even worse 43-119 season in 2003. The Tigers' 119 losses were 20 more than the second-worst team in baseball that year, the Tampa Bay then-Devil Rays, who finished 63-99.

That year's team was managed by Hall of Fame shortstop Alan Trammell and finished the season last in the majors in team batting average (.240) and on-base percentage (.300) and was only better than the Texas Rangers in team ERA (5.30).

The Tigers would remarkably make the World Series three years later under manager Jim Leyland in 2006 but fell to the St. Louis Cardinals in five games.

The first decade of the 21st century wasn't kind to the Detroit Lions, as they failed to make the playoffs from 2000-10 and had only one winning season during the stretch. The 2008 campaign was particularly brutal, when they finished 0-16.

Detroit's futility that year came despite having Hall of Fame wide receiver Calvin Johnson playing in his second season, as "Megatron" led the NFL with 12 touchdown receptions in 2008. Even with Johnson, the Lions failed to score more than 25 points in a game all year.

Head coach Ron Marinelli's group had plenty of close calls to earning a victory that campaign, including a four-game stretch from Weeks 6-9 where each contest was decided by one possession.

Ironically, the Lions wrapped up their infamous winless season just over seven months after the NHL's Detroit Red Wings won their most recent Stanley Cup.

Since making the playoffs in 30 of 32 seasons from 1983-2016 and winning four Stanley Cups, the Red Wings have fallen on hard times, missing the tournament in seven straight years.

Detroit was particularly brutal on the ice during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 campaign when they finished with 15 fewer wins and 23 fewer points than any other team in the NHL. The Red Wings started the season 3-1 and still held a mediocre 7-12-1 mark in mid-November before a 12-game losing streak did them in.

The group unsurprisingly finished the year last in both goals for (145) and goals against (267).

The Red Wings haven't finished above .500 since their last playoff campaign in 2015-16, but are off to a 16-14-4 start in 2023-24.