Which baseball team set an all-time record when they lost 120 games in 1962?

In their very first year of existence, the 1962 New York Mets established a modern-era record for baseball futility that still stands today. As an expansion team created to bring National League baseball back to New York, they finished their inaugural season with a staggering 40 wins and 120 losses. No team since the 19th century has lost as many games in a single season, cementing this club's place in the history books for all the wrong reasons.

The team was managed by the legendary Casey Stengel, who had previously led the New York Yankees to ten pennants. Famously bewildered by his new team's performance, he once asked, "Can't anybody here play this game?" The roster was a colorful collection of past-their-prime veterans, unproven rookies, and journeymen who became infamous for their on-field blunders. First baseman Marv Throneberry, for example, became a folk hero for his comically inept play.

Despite their historically poor record, this Mets team became known affectionately as the "Lovable Losers." Fans who had been heartbroken by the departure of the Dodgers and Giants embraced the new team with a sense of humor and loyalty. The Mets' disastrous first season paradoxically helped build a passionate fanbase that would stick with the team through thick and thin, culminating in their miraculous World Series championship just seven years later in 1969.