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1899 CLEVELAND SPIDERS
The 1899 Cleveland Spiders are considered the worst team in the history of baseball. While the 1962 New York Mets are considered the worst team, the Spiders only won half as many games as the Mets. Afraid to appear in front of their hometown "fans", they spent the last half of the season on the road.
The 1899 Cleveland Spiders of the National League were so bad that a local sports writer named Elmer Bates wrote half of a prehistoric Top Ten list to describe the good points of following such a terrible team:
- There is everything to hope for and nothing to fear.
- Defeats do not disturb one's sleep.
- An occasional victory is a surprise and a delight.
- There is no danger of any club passing you.
- You are not asked 50 times a day, "What was the score?" People take it for granted that you lost.
The major reason for the poor season was attributed to Frank Robison, Cleveland owner, who bought the St. Louis Brown's at a sheriff's auction and decided that a good team would draw better in St. Louis than in Cleveland. He then transferred all of Cleveland's stars to the Browns, which he arrogantly renamed the Perfectos. Pitching great Cy Young, batting champion Jesse Burkett, and all the other Spiders stars were replaced by minor-leaguers and semi-pros.
After the first 38 games, the Spiders compiled a .211 winning percentage (8-30). Sadly, this was the highpoint in the season as they played .103 ball in the final 116 games (12-104). They lost 24 games in a row, had six streaks of 11 or more losses, and finished a record 84 games behind the league leaders. The Spiders compiled a team ERA of 6.37 and gave up 8.13 runs per game.
Pitcher Jim Hughey led the staff in wins with 4 while
losing 30 games, 16 of them in a row. Charlie Knepper also won 4 and lost 22,
Frank Bates won one and lost 18, Fred Schmitt was 2-17. Willie Sudhoff won 3
of his 11 games for the Spiders. Frank Bates, lost 4, won 1, then lost 14 in
a row. The team hit only 12 home runs, while former Spider star Bobby Wallace
hit 12 by himself for St. Louis.
Order the book : "MISFITS! Baseball's Worst Ever Team" by J. Thomas Hetrick
