1899 Cleveland Spiders season

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1899 Cleveland Spiders
Major league affiliations
Location
1899 Information
Owner(s) Frank Robison
Manager(s) Lave Cross, Joe Quinn
Local television none
Local radio none

In 1899, the Cleveland Spiders' owners, the Robison brothers, bought the St. Louis Perfectos baseball club, but also retained ownership of the Cleveland club, an obvious conflict of interest that was later outlawed. They decided that a good team in St. Louis would draw more fans, so they proceeded to transfer most of the Cleveland stars, including future Baseball Hall of Famers Cy Young, Jesse Burkett, and Bobby Wallace to St. Louis.

According to various individual pages in baseball-reference.com, most of this activity took place on March 29, 1899, just 17 days before the beginning of the new season:

Pitchers
Frank Bates, Nig Cuppy, Cowboy Jones, Pete McBride, Jack Powell, Zeke Wilson, Cy Young to St. Louis
Kid Carsey, Jim Hughey, Harry Maupin, Willie Sudhoff to Cleveland
Catchers
Lou Criger, Jack O'Connor to St. Louis
Jack Clements, Joe Sugden to Cleveland
Infielders
Jimmy Burke, Cupid Childs, Ed McKean, Ossee Schreckengost, Bobby Wallace to St. Louis
Patsy Tebeau to St. Louis (to be manager)
Joe Quinn, Suter Sullivan, Tommy Tucker to Cleveland
Lave Cross to Cleveland (to be manager)
Outfielders
Harry Blake, Jesse Burkett, Emmet Heidrick to St. Louis
Tommy Dowd, Dick Harley to Cleveland

There was further action on June 5:

Willie Sudhoff, Lave Cross back to St. Louis
Frank Bates, Ossee Schreckengost back to Cleveland

Deprived of its talent, the last year of the Spiders team was the worst in major league history, as the club finished 20-134 (.130) and lost 40 of their last 41 games of the season. The 1899 Cleveland team trailed 84 games behind the pennant-winning Brooklyn Superbas. Cleveland was 35 games behind the next-to-last (11th) place Washington club.

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 (.092) on the road, and 9-25 (.265) 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 fans paid for Spider home games in 1899, an average attendance of 179 per game.


Contents

[edit] Regular season

[edit] Opening Day Starters

[edit] Season standings

National League W L GB Pct.
Brooklyn Superbas 101 47 -- .682
Boston Beaneaters 95 57 8 .625
Philadelphia Phillies 94 58 9 .618
Baltimore Orioles 86 62 15 .581
St. Louis Perfectos 84 67 18.5 .556
Cincinnati Reds 83 67 19 .553
Pittsburgh Pirates 76 73 25.5 .510
Chicago Orphans 75 75 26 .507
Louisville Colonels 75 77 28 .493
New York Giants 60 90 42 .400
Washington Senators 54 98 49 .355
Cleveland Spiders 20 134 84 .130

[edit] Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At Bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting Average; HR = Home Runs; RBI = Runs Batted In

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI

[edit] Other batters

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI

[edit] Starting pitchers

Player G IP W L ERA SO

[edit] Other pitchers

Player G IP W L ERA

[edit] Relief pitchers
Player G W L SV ERA SO


[edit] References

v • d • e
1899 MLB season by team
National League
v • d • e
Cleveland Spiders

Cleveland, Ohio

The Franchise

Ballparks – National League Park, League Park

Seasons

1887 • 1888 •
1889 • 1890 • 1891 • 1892 • 1893 • 1894 • 1895 • 1896 • 1897 • 1898 • 1899
 This article relating to a baseball season is a stub. You can help by expanding it.