Shuffling through the sports section Wednesday, we came across this number: 108. No, that wasn't the number of rushing yards for the Hogs last weekend. Or the over-under on the next Saints game. The "108" was buried in the standings for the American League east division. Specifically on the line across from Baltimore Orioles.
It was the loss column.
With several series still to play before October rolls around, the Orioles have already lost 108 games. They will doubtless break the franchise record for futility, with series against the Yankees, BoSox and Astros still on the schedule. Four more losses in those games, and they'll go over the top. Or rather under the bottom.
But they ain't got nuthin' on the Cleveland Spiders, circa 1899.
Gather 'round, chillen, and we'll tell you about real futility. The Cleveland Spiders went 20-134 in 1899. They were so bad that one pitcher who lost to them, a rare occurrence, was fined and suspended by his team.
Long before Wayne Huizenga there was Frank Robison, owner of the Spiders. Before the practice was outlawed, owners could have ownership of more than one team. Mr. Robison bought part of the St. Louis team at the time (not the Cardinals) and, because he thought he could get more people in the stands at games farther down south, traded all of the Spiders' best players to St. Louis--including a pitcher named Cy Young.
The Spiders hadn't been bad. According to an article in Sports Illustrated on the 100th anniversary of the season, the team had had winning seasons before the fire sale. But once all the talent was sent packing, RBIs went way down and ERAs went way up. The team was dropped from the Majors soon after.
Our historian friends at sportsecyclopedia.com say the team was so bad, and Cleveland fans so upset at the trades, that only 6,088 people went to see home games that year. That's not the average attendance. That was the year's total. The average home crowd was 199 in the team's first 16 games, before other teams protested to the league.
Since visiting teams got revenue from gate receipts, league offices decided that the Spiders would play 90 percent of their games on the road that season. Because of that schedule change, the team lost more than 100 road games. Now that's a record that will never ever be beat--because they don't play that many away games in the Majors these days.
The manager of the 1899 Spiders quit 40 games into the year. He went to St. Louis.
The team won back-to-back games just once.
At one point, the Spiders lost 24 games in a row.
They finished 84 games back of first.
This was not a good team.
This year's version of the Baltimore Orioles has won 43 games, so it's already doubled the wins of the 1899 Spiders. Even if the Orioles make news next week or the next, and not in a good way, one thing players can always say: We weren't the worst.
And: Thank God for the Cleveland Spiders.
Editorial on 09/20/2018