Kevin McCarthy, GOP Member of the House of Representatives, will apparently never become Speaker. At the same time, he’ll also never quit trying, meaning we get to see him lose his bid, over and over again.
It’s quite comical, and the schadenfreude is something we all deserve. After all, today is January 6th, the two-year anniversary of the failed insurrection that former President Donald Trump incited.
Kevin McCarthy goes 0-13 matching Terry Helton’s 1982 pitching record with the Minnesota Twins.#SpeakeroftheHouse
— ?Arbiter of Cool?????? (@ArbiterofCool) January 6, 2023
On that day, McCarthy made it clear that he believed Trump was to blame for the violent attempt to overthrow the democratically elected United States government at the U.S. Capitol.
Yet less than two weeks later, Kevin McCarthy was down at Mar-a-Lago cozying up to Trump and trying to curry favor with him. McCarthy is just like Lindsey Graham, a man who absolutely stands for nothing, and as such deserves all the public humiliation that he receives.
For more on this, I suggest you watch Stepen Cobert’s Late Show monologue on this topic, embedded above.
And with that in mind, let’s continue piling on Kevin McCarthy, in his failed attempts to win the House Speaker position. He is now 0-13, a major loser.
Let’s see how he rates with some of the biggest losers of all-time, in the sporting world.
1988 Baltimore Orioles
Set a Major League Baseball record for starting a new season without a win. They began the campaign 0-21, before finishing the season 54-107.
Only five MLB losing streaks have ever exceeded this one, but only one (1961 Philadelphia Phillies) have occurred since the beginning of the 19th century.
1997 Chicago Cubs
They started the season 0-14, so Kevin McCarthy is just one more loss away from tying these Lovable Losers. This edition of the Cubs finished 68-94, and they were every bit as bad as they sound.
In the early to mid 1990s the Cubs were awful, just brutal. They were borderline unwatchable back in those days. Ricketts seems intent on bringing that back right now.
Early 1980s Northwestern Football
A 61–14 loss to Michigan State in 1981 was the Cats’ 29th consecutive, breaking a record shared with Kansas State between 1945 and 1948, and Virginia between 1958 and 1961
On September 25, 1982, the losing streak finally ended at 34 with a win over Northern Illinois. NU students rushed the field, tore down the goalposts, and carried them about a mile to the beach, where they heaved them into Lake Michigan.
So Kevin McCarthy has a ways to go, in order to match the “Mildcats” of yester year. But both the 1980 and 1981 NU teams went 0-11.
Humble Beginnings of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
In the franchise’s first season, they went 0-14, prompting the immortal coaching quote by John McKay posted above. They also started their second season 0-12, meaning they lost their first 26 games right off the bat.
McCarthy is now halfway there. Eventually, McKay brought the Bucs to three playoff appearances and even ia NFC title game appearance in 1979.
Today, he is even represented in the Ring of Honor at Raymond James Stadium, the current home of the Buccaneers.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.