2019 MLB Tortured Fanbase Rankings

With the start of another baseball season comes an annual tradition: It’s time for my MLB Tortured Fan Base Rankings. This is, somehow, the sixth year we’ve done these: The first five ran at Sports On Earth, and now they live here. Here are the MLB rankings from 2013 , 2014, 2015 , 2016 and 2017. A recap of the process, if you’re not familiar with it already:

It’s my ranking of every team’s fan base, from most to least spoiled when it comes to winning. Lots of factors are involved: fan loyalty, historical success, particularly painful eras, near-miss title chances, current roster, any ineffable notion that just occurs to me while I’m putting this list together.

I’ve done my best to take reader comments into account, as well changes in circumstances over the past year, specious assessments from the past and everything else in this year’s rankings, but this is an ongoing process, a march toward perfect. When in doubt, though, the tiebreaker is almost always “how long it has been since a team won a World Series.” That is, after all, the goal.

30. Boston Red Sox
Last title: 2018
World Series appearances: 13
Championships: 9
Last year’s ranking: 28