Cleveland Spiders

In 1899 the Spiders went 20-134. It is the worst record in the game's history by both measures: no club has lost more games in a season, and none has won a smaller share of them. The reason is not that the players were bad. The owners, the Robison brothers, also owned the St. Louis club, and before the season they moved Cy Young and every other player worth having across to it.

What was left played 154 games, most of them on the road because nobody in Cleveland would come, drew a few hundred people when it was at home, and was expelled from the league at the end of the year along with three other clubs. Eleven seasons at 738-764 in total.

Before that the club had been good: 84-46 in 1895, second in the league, with Young, Jesse Burkett, Bobby Wallace and Patsy Tebeau, who managed for eight seasons and won 579 games. Six Hall of Famers played here. The 1899 season is what the name is remembered for, and it was a decision made in an office rather than anything that happened on a field.