Entering Wednesday, 121 of the 122 current major professional sports franchises had finished in sole possession of last place in their division at least once since the start of 1984. On Wednesday night the single outlier had its longest streak of nonfutility in pro sports snapped as the Cincinnati Reds clinched last place in the NL Central.

Cincinnati’s stretch of avoiding the cellar was the longest active streak across the four major sports leagues. That distinction will now belong to the San Antonio Spurs at 28 straight seasons. The NFL's longest active streak is the Steelers' 26 straight seasons. The NHL's longest belongs to the Red Wings, 24 straight.

The Elias Sports Bureau notes that the longest streaks without finishing dead last in the division or league in baseball are held by the Dodgers at 86 straight years from 1906 (as the Brooklyn Superbas) to 1991, and the Red Sox with 59 straight seasons from 1933 also to 1991.

At season’s end the Yankees and Cardinals will extend their streaks to a full quarter century, and the Braves may join them. The Reds will join the Cardinals, Dodgers and Yankees as baseball’s only teams with one last-place finish over the past 32 seasons.

Over that same span, the Pirates finished last 12 times, nine of which came in the NL Central as Cincinnati’s divisional mate.

A few other items of note related to that:

The current face of the Reds franchise, Joey Votto, was 22 days old when the Reds completed their last-place finish in 1983.

The 1983 Reds featured Big Red Machine holdovers Johnny Bench, Dave Concepcion and Dan Driessen. They were 74-88 and finished 5 games behind the fifth-place Giants in the NL West. Those same players were part of a Reds team that won 108 games and the World Series in 1975. It was the Reds' second straight last-place finish.