Cleveland Spiders
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The Cleveland Spiders were a Major League Baseball team which played between 1887 and 1899 in Cleveland, Ohio. The team played at National League Park from 1889 to 1890 and at League Park from 1891 to 1899.
The Spiders began their history in the old American Association (then a major league) in 1887. They were a weak team in their early years, but started to improve in 1891, two years after moving to the National League thanks in large part to their signing future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young.
The Spiders had its best ever season in 1892, when they finished 93-56, good for second in the league. Other than standout second baseman Cupid Childs, the Spiders had an unremarkable offense. Their success in 1892 was built on pitching strength; Young was the NL's most dominant hurler, and 22-year-old Nig Cuppy had an outstanding rookie year. Following the season, a "World's Championship Series" exhibition was played between Cleveland and the first-place Boston Beaneaters, but the Spiders could only muster one tie in six games.
In 1895, the Spiders again finished second, this time to the equally rough-and-tumble Baltimore Orioles. Young again led the league in wins, and speedy leftfielder Jesse Burkett won the batting title with a .409 average. The Spiders then won the Temple Cup, the postseason equivalent of the modern World Series. Amid fan rowdyism and garbage throwing, the Spiders won four of five games, including two wins for Cy Young.
The 1895 championship was the high water mark for the franchise. The following season, Baltimore and Cleveland again finished first and second in the NL. But in the battle for the 1896 Temple Cup, the second-place Spiders were swept in four games.
The Cleveland Spiders finished fifth in each of the next two seasons, albeit with a winning record both times. Then came 1899.
[edit] 1899: the debacle
In 1899, the Spiders' owners bought the St. Louis Browns baseball club. They decided that a good team in St. Louis would draw more fans, so they proceeded to transfer most of their stars, including Young, to St. Louis.
Deprived of its talent, the last Spiders team was the worst in major league history, finishing 20-134 and losing 40 of their last 41 games of the season. The team trailed 84 games behind the pennant-winning Brooklyn Superbas. Cleveland was 35 games out of 11th and next-to-last place.
Due to lackluster attendance, other NL teams refused to travel to Cleveland's park. The Spiders were thus forced to play the final 36 games of the season on the road, of which they lost 35. In so doing, they set a number of negative records, including one that is truly unbreakable due to baseball's schedule: 109 road losses.
The 1899 Spiders were 11-109 on the road, and 9-25 at home. The team's longest winning streak of the season was two games, which they accomplished once: on May 20 and May 21. Spiders opponents scored ten or more runs 49 times in 154 games. Pitchers Jim Hughey (4-30) and Charlie Knepper (4-22) tied for the team lead in wins. 6,088 masochistic fans paid for Spider home games in 1899, an average attendance of 179 per game.
The 1962 New York Mets (40-120) and 2003 Detroit Tigers (43-119) have the modern-era worst records in their respective leagues, and thus draw frequent comparisons to the Spiders for futility.
The Spiders were one of four teams contracted out of the National League at the end of the 1899 season. In 1901, Cleveland fielded a team in the new American League, and the Spiders were never heard from again.
