19 years

High beer prices, Mariano Rivera(notes), and losing baseball in Pittsburgh.

Those are the surest guarantees in baseball, a fact that was clinched on Wednesday when the Buccos collected their 82nd defeat of the season with a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park. Pittsburgh has now posted 19 straight losing seasons, extending its record for the most consecutive losing campaigns in baseball history.

The previous record had been held by the 1933-48 Philadelphia Phillies, but the Pirates won exclusive control of the depressing designation in 2009. The franchise is actually the most consistent losing outfit in professional sports history with the list looking like this:

MLB: 19 — Pittsburgh Pirates, 1993-2011
NHL: 15 — Vancouver Canucks, 1976-91
NBA: 15— Kansas City/Sacramento Kings, 1983-98
NFL: 14 — Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1983-96

While most of these past two decades have numbed the loyal fans that remain in Pittsburgh, this year might have actually left a stinging sensation after some early false hope. The Pirates caught a few breaks in the first half, climbed as high as seven games over .500 and even held a share of first place in the NL Central as late as July 25.

the rest of the misery at: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Ouch-Plummeting-Pirates-clinch-19th-straight-lo?urn=mlb-wp19537

some teams can't....