The 29 most hopeless fan bases in professional sports

CLEVELAND, OH - DECEMBER 13, 2015: Cleveland Browns fans hold up signs reading 'HELP' during a game against the San Francisco 49ers on December 13, 2015 at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland won 24-10. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images) /

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FLUSHING, NY – APRIL 17: Barry Bonds /

16. Pittsburgh Pirates

Last championship: 1979

Last winning season: 2015

Since the Pirates last won the World Series 37 years ago, they have taken a pair of the hardest freefalls in all of sports, securing them a place on this list.

The first of which ran through the early 1980s, when the Pirates finished in the bottom half of the National Leaque East in eight out of 10 years. However, with the emergence of Barry Bonds in the early 90s, the Pittsburgh struggles subsided as they made three straight NL Championship Series. But even this run was packed with disappointment, as the Pirates never made the World Series and twice lost in game sevens to the Braves.

After Bonds departed in 1992, the team fell into a spiral that lasted two decades and saw the Pirates become the perennial laughingstock of baseball. From 2005-2011 alone, the team lost better than 90 games in each season, and this was only the tip of the iceberg that struck them. When they posted yet another losing season in 2012, they set a United States professional sports record with 20 consecutive losing seasons.

Four Presidents served between winning seasons for the Pirates during their abysmal run. And while their recent upturn in success has brokered some optimism for their future, it is not enough to erase the horrors of the not so far gone past.

Next: 115. Philadelphia Eagles