Fansided

The 29 most hopeless fan bases in professional sports

By Matt Whitener

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)
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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Apr 1, 2016; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Expos former player and now a Toronto Blue Jays base running instructor Tim Raines before the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Blue Jays at Olympic Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 1, 2016; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Expos former player and now a Toronto Blue Jays base running instructor Tim Raines before the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Blue Jays at Olympic Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports /

8. Washington Nationals/Montreal Expos

Last championship: never

Last winning season: 2015

The hardest thing to digest about the franchise that has lived as both the Montreal Expos and Washington Nationals? The what-ifs and if-onlys that seems to surround its history. Because there are few teams in sports that carry more mystique than that of the mid-90s Expos’, who bore the greatest brunt of the strike-shortened 1994 season. Armed with a supremely talented young roster featuring the likes of Larry Walker, Moises Alou, Marquis Grissom, and a young Pedro Martinez, they were nearly 40 games over .500 when the season was called off.

This ended being the penultimate moment for the Expos franchise, which had flirted with success in the past, but never saw it pay in full. By the early 2000s, the Expos had become a financial mess and were sold to Major League Baseball, who in turn starved them out and put them for sale (despite a (still) supportive fanbase in Quebec). The Expos were effectively killed off and rebranded as the Washington Nationals.

The Nationals in turn got off to a brutal start in D.C., finishing over 20 games out of first place in five of their first seven seasons. And despite turning things around since, on the backs of Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer, and Stephen Strasburg, there is still a lingering feeling of underperformance based on team payroll with the current day Nats — as well as the longing for what was lost in Montreal — which makes this one of the most frustrating franchises in all of sports.

Next: 7. St. Louis Blues