The 1899 Cleveland Spiders
For the better part of the 1890s, the Cleveland Spiders had been a fairly decent team in the National League. Then suddenly, in 1899, the Cleveland owners bought the St.Louis Browns, renamed them the Perfectos and took all the Spiders' best players to fill the roster.
The players left behind tried their best but it was none too good. They lost 11 or more games in a row 6 times. One of their best pitchers was a 34 year old rookie named Henry Colliflower, who went 1-11. At one point in the season the convinced Eddie Kolb, the tobacco salesman in the hotel lobby into pitching. He lost 19-3.
By the end of the season the Cleveland fans had begun boycotting the home games and the team would become known as the "Wanderers", "Foresakens" and "Exiles" because they so often played on the road.
They ended the 1899 campaign with the worst record in Major League History: 20 wins and 134 losses.
The players left behind tried their best but it was none too good. They lost 11 or more games in a row 6 times. One of their best pitchers was a 34 year old rookie named Henry Colliflower, who went 1-11. At one point in the season the convinced Eddie Kolb, the tobacco salesman in the hotel lobby into pitching. He lost 19-3.
By the end of the season the Cleveland fans had begun boycotting the home games and the team would become known as the "Wanderers", "Foresakens" and "Exiles" because they so often played on the road.
They ended the 1899 campaign with the worst record in Major League History: 20 wins and 134 losses.
2 comments:
Wow!! So there actually was once a team worse than my Pittsburgh Pirates of the past 16 seasons, eh?
Not for long, though!!
lol
Haha. Ya its a shame that the Pirates can't get back to what they were 20 years ago. Thankfully they are in good financial shape. Maybe some of those prospects they got for Bay will pan out.
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