Weeks - Cellar dwellers: the worst teams in baseball history

Preface

Perhaps Senator William Marcy said it best in 1832 when he popularized the proverb, to the victor belong the spoils. The pages of baseball history are cluttered with stories of championship squads, their deeds immortalized by the enamored media. Even casual fans are acquainted with The Gashouse Gang, The Miracle Mets, and The Big Red Machine, to name just a few.

But what of the losers? Every year, their stories fade deeper into the mists of time as new October heroes are born. In 1899, the Cleveland Spiders established an all-time record for futility with a 20134 record. Along the way, they compiled a staggering 24 consecutive defeats. Seventeen years later, Connie Macks doleful Athletics came up short on 117 occasions despite the presence of Napoleon Lajoie, one of the greatest second basemen ever to play the game. The Boston Braves suffered a similar fate in 1935, losing 115 contests while carrying Babe Ruth on the roster. How on earth did this happen? And are these tales less worthy of our attention? Certainly not!

In the pages that follow, the underdogs are given their due. Cellar Dwellers recounts the misadventures of baseballs worst teams. Deserted by fans and ridiculed by the press, most of these clubs played to nearly empty stadiums, often losing gracefully, but sometimes making a mockery of the sport. With few exceptions, their efforts have been largely excluded from the existing body of baseball lore. Cellar Dwellers paints a picture not only of pratfalls and pranks, but also of tribulation and tragedy. Its high time these forgotten chronicles found an audience.

Jonathan Weeks

February 2012

Chapter ONE

1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys

Won 23

Lost 113

The Dim and Distant Past

Baseball in the nineteenth century had little in common with the game as we know it today. Stadiums were much smaller and constructed of wood, making them vulnerable to fire. During the latter half of the century, at least four major league parks were consumed by flames, among them the Union Baseball Grounds in Chicago and Washington Park in Brooklyn. Many stadiums were lacking even the most basic amenities, for example, dugouts and clubhouses. Consequently, players were left unguarded against insults and projectiles hurled by disgruntled fans.

Such protective equipment as helmets, batting gloves, and shin guards were unheard of in the early days. Mitts were poorly designed and sparsely padded. A veteran of twenty-six major league seasons, catcher Deacon McGuire fell into the habit of placing raw beefsteak inside his glove to absorb the impact of pitched balls. Even so, x-rays of McGuires hands taken years after he retired revealed evidence of nearly fifty dislocations or breaks.

Since the rules were not yet refined in the 1800s, unusual occurrences were not uncommon on the diamond. In a game for the New Brunswick championship, a University of St. Joseph player literally collapsed and died while rounding third base. Following close behind, a teammate picked up the lifeless form and carried it to home plate. Incredibly, the umpire counted both runs. Other primitive regulations afforded unfair advantages to both pitchers and batters. Before 1893, the pitchers mound was located a mere fifty feet from home plate. Deceptive windups were legal, and baseballs could be doctored without penalty. To the batters benefit, held foul tips were not counted as strikes until 1895. One side of the bat could be flat prior to 1893, and balls bouncing over the fence into the outfield stands were counted as homeruns (this rule persisted through the 1929 campaign).

Strategies were far different in the days of old. In his The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract , Bill James describes nineteenth-century tactics as violent and criminal. Before 1895, infielders could deliberately bungle shallow pop-ups with runners on base in the interest of turning cheap double plays. (The infield fly rule put an end to this practice.) First basemen were allowed to grab the belts of opposing players and restrain them from advancing to second. They were also free to shove runners off the bag after signaling for a pick-off throw from the pitcher.

The conduct of players was crude and unrefined both on and off the field. National League president John Heydler, who also served as an umpire in the 1890s, described the Baltimore Orioles of that decade as mean, vicious, ready at any time to maim a rival player or an umpire. Indeed, players cursed, threw fists at one other, and drank themselves blind. A passage in Spaldings 1889 Baseball Guide grouses that, Drunken players are not only a costly drawback to success individually, but they permeate the whole baseball fraternity with a demoralizing influence.

Before the dawn of the twentieth century, there were essentially two major leagues. Founded in 1876, the National League (NL) arose from the National Association of Professional Baseball Players. Its eight original members were located in such bustling cities as Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia. Six years later, the American Association (AA) stepped up to challenge the monopoly. While the NL was somewhat restrictive, the AA was far more accommodating, slashing ticket prices from fifty to twenty-five cents, while allowing beer and alcohol to be served at games. Often referred to as The Beer and Whiskey League, the younger circuit also sought to undermine the NL by allowing games to be played on Sundays.

Independent baseball first appeared in Pittsburgh in 1876, with various teams barnstorming the area. In 1882, the strongest team in the region joined the AA. The club played as the Alleghenys, deriving its name from Allegheny City, which was located across the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh and housed various ball fields. (Interestingly, Allegheny city would be annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907.) The Alleghenys started out poorly but improved gradually before jumping to the NL in 1887.