Have I written this before? Probably. But I am thinking of it now and will restate it.

I love losing streaks. In life. But especially in sports.

It gives us something to talk about. Something to focus on. A running subplot. Sometimes the plot.

We lost some great losing streaks in the past decade.

Four of which come to mind.

1. 2004: The Boston Red Sox win the World Series.

I don’t like the Red Sox. Never really did. And then Bill Simmons, Massive Boston Honk, came on the scene, and I liked them even less.

I loved the Curse of the Bambino, and even if it were apparently a semi-modern creation (see the link), it felt old and it invoked Babe Ruth and the Red Sox selling him, and certainly Boston had not won a World Series since 1918 — two years before they sent the Bambino to New York and essentially created the Yankees as a juggernaut to leave the Red Sox in the dust.

I wanted the Red Sox to lose forever. (This was beyond liking it as a story line.) And I wanted it even more, in hindsight, when Simmons wrote his book, “Now I Can Die in Peace”. (Excuse me while I gack up lunch, just thinking of it.)

2. The White Sox winning the 2005 World Series.

This was bitter, very bitter, coming right after the Red Sox ending their losing streak. The White Sox had not won a World Series since 1917, in part because the 1919 Black Sox threw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. They lost. On purpose. For money. The worst thing any athlete can do. Better a ballplayer kill a man than to conspire with gamblers.

I wanted them to lose forever on moral grounds. No franchise that could spawn a conspiracy to lose deserved to win a World Series. Ever.

And they hadn’t since 1917.

The 2005 World Series was made worse by the Angels getting taken advantage of, in the ALCS, by the catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who convinced the plate umpire to ignore the fact he had struck out, leading to the winning run in Game 2 when the Angels could have taken a 2-0 lead in the series.

Ugh.

3. The San Francisco Giants ending their 57-year wait by winning the 2011 World Series. Actually, San Francisco had never won a World Series; that 1954 victory came when the Giants were still in New York. And as a Dodgers fan, who understands at a gut level how vile the San Francisco Giants and their fans often are … I wouldn’t have minded Frisco going 0-for-forever. (Even if I had a moment of madness last year and suggested I wanted them to win the World Series over the Texas Rangers.)

4. Andy Murray winning the U.S. Open this year, ending the 76-year drought by British male tennis players in grand slam events.

This was a great losing streak. We talked about it all the time, especially here at The National in Abu Dhabi, where our default setting is “pro-British” in matters sporting. No Brit had won a grand slam since Fred Perry took the U.S. Open in 1936 — just an amazing stat considering tennis is a popular sport in England/Britain, and was during the whole of the streak.

5. A bonus broken streak. The Washington Nationals are about to clinch a playoffs berth, ending Washington’s 79-year absence from postseason baseball. (The 1933 World Series.) Granted, Washington didn’t have a team for about 35 years of that span, but still. Great streak.

So, what do we have left?

–The grandaddy of ’em all. The Chicago Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908. I love love love that stat. More than a century ago. They also have not won a National League pennant since 1945.

–The Houston Astros have never won a World Series, and they have been around since 1962. (And they will never win one in the National League; they are shifting to the American League next year, which is Just Plain Weird, and which I may write later on.)

–The Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings have never won a Super Bowl, and each has had four shots at it. The Super Bowl has been played since 1967.

–The Detroit Lions have never even played in the Super Bowl. Neither have the Cleveland Browns. Both were around when the game was created. Houston and Jacksonville, born as expansion teams, have not played in one, either.

–The Cleveland Indians haven’t won a World Series since 1948, which is a pretty serious streak.

–And the Brits still haven’t won Wimbledon since 1936, when the same Fred Perry took it.  A serious streak for the tournament the Brits would most like to win.

I treasure all of those. I don’t want any of them to go away. Or the other half dozen I probably could dig out if I spent more time at it.