1 bemoaned: "Twelve clubs have staid through the season by dint of switching dates, violating the schedule, and resorting to every possible means to help the financial end of the game to the detriment of the sport."įour clubs were eliminated from the National League: The rotting husks of the Spiders and Orioles, along with the Washington Senators and Louisville Colonels. Attendance dwindled to the point that teams refused to play in Cleveland, and the Spiders were forced to play 85 of their final 93 games on the road.īy any measure, the 1899 National League season was a disaster. The Spiders would finish the season with a record of 20-134, which still stands as the worst in the history of professional baseball. The impact in Cleveland was catastrophic. While the Brooklyn/Baltimore collusion would lead the Superbas to a pennant and a sterling 101-47 record, the Perfectos sagged as the season went on, ultimately finishing 5th (out of 12) with a record of 84-67. So the 1899 National League featured a couple teams stacked with superstars and a couple teams more-or-less designed to lose. The owner of the Baltimore Orioles became a part-owner of the Brooklyn franchise, renamed them "the Superbas" and shipped all of the best players from Baltimore to Brooklyn. The reason? A very similar situation was playing out on the east coast. But as good as the team was (at least early on), they never had more than a 1.5 game lead in the standings. They won their first seven in-a-row, nine of their first ten. This stacked Perfectos roster was a juggernaut. They transferred many of the best players from the Spiders to the Perfectos, including future Hall-of-Famers Cy Young, Jesse Burkett and Bobby Wallace. Louis was the larger market, so they decided it should have the better team. Louis team to "The Perfectos," and changed the team's color to red. The Robison Brothers changed the name of the St.
But remember, this was The Gilded Age, when monopolies and conflicts of interest were as American as apple pie. If you're thinking "owning two teams in the same league is a tremendous conflict of interest," you're right.
(You may remember the antics of owner and beer baron impresario Chris von der Ahe from The Summer of Beer and Whiskey.) Following a rough year which saw much of the ballpark burn down and von der Ahe briefly kidnapped, he sold the team to Frank and Stanley Robison, who also owned the Cleveland Spiders (also of the National League). Prior to 1899, the team played as the St. Louis Cardinals and really, the entire modern era of baseball as we know it today. The 1899 season paved the way for the birth of the St. Louis baseball franchise and for professional baseball at large. That claim was soon amended, via Twitter and on-air, to "the best start since 1899." That's an understandable glitch, as 1899 was a real outlier year, both for the St. When the Cardinals defeated the Cubs Monday night to move to 19-6 on the year, Fox Sports Midwest quickly labeled it the best start in franchise history.
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