Cleveland Spiders is a professional baseball club that played in Major League Baseball from 1887 to 1899. Based in Cleveland ( Ohio , USA ). The team spent home games in the National League Park from 1889 to 1890 and in the League Park from 1891 to 1899.
1887-1891
Initially, in 1887, the Spiders performed in the American Association (then Major League) under the names of Cleveland Forest City and Cleveland Blues . The founder and owner of the team was Frank Robison .
In the early years of its existence, Forest City was a weak club. In 1889, the team moved to the National League , changing the name to Spiders. In 1891, after signing a future member of the Baseball Hall of Fame , pitcher Sai Young , club results began to improve.
1892-1898
The year 1892 was successful for the Spiders, who ended the season with a score of 93-65, becoming the winner of the second half of the championship. The success of the team was based on a good game of pitchers: Sai Young was one of the best players in the National League, and 22-year-old rookie Nig Cappi successfully played his debut season. At the end of the championship, the World Champion Series was played between the winner of the first half of the season - Boston Biniters and Spiders, which ended with the Biniters' victory.
In 1895, the Spiders again finished the championship in second place, losing only to the Baltimore Orioles . Young again became the league leader in the number of wins, and left-hand fielder Jesse Burkett became the best batter, with an average bounce rate of 40.9%. The Spiders became the winners of the Temple Cup, the forerunner of the World Series , in which the first and second championship teams met. In the Spiders series, they won four victories in five matches, including two Sai Young wins.
The 1895 season was the most successful in club history. The following season, Baltimore and Cleveland again took first and second place in the NL, but the Orioles won in the 1896 Temple Cup. In 1897, despite the club’s record for the number of victories won, the team finished the championship in fifth place. This season was also remembered by Xia Young's first know-how . In the 1898 season, Spiders once again finished the season in fifth place.
1899
In 1899, the Spiders owners, the Robison brothers, bought another St. Louis Browns baseball club, changing its name to Perfection. However, they left Spiders in their property. Hoping that the Performers will be able to attract more viewers to the more populous St. Louis, the Robison has moved most of Cleveland's star players, including pitcher Pete McBride and three future members of the Hall of Fame: Young, Jesse Burkett, and Bobby Wallace, to the Performers. They also began to play many home games away, including in St. Louis.
With a weakened roster, the team showed the worst season in baseball history, scoring just 20 wins in 154 matches, lagging behind the best league team by 84 wins and the penultimate team by 35.
Following the purchase of the Performers, the Robinsons said the team would be just a “frame” for their new acquisition, which negatively impacted visits to the Spiders games. In the first 16 home games of the season, a total of 3179 people visited the stadium, and the average attendance was 199 people. Due to such low attendance, 11 other NL teams refused to come to the games in League Park, since ticket fees did not even cover the cost of moving and staying at a hotel. This led to the Spiders being forced to play 85 of the 93 remaining away games. Given the games that the club played away at the beginning of the season, Spiders played a total of 42 home games in the championship. The team in the home matches showed the result 9-33 (.214), and away - 11-101 (.098). A total of 6088 people visited the home games of the team, and the average attendance was 145 people.
101 away away matches are a record for major leagues, and it is believed that they will never be beaten, as currently teams play 81 games at home and 81 away. The longest win-win streak of the season was a two-game streak. Spiders rivals scored ten or more points per game 49 times.
The New York Mets belongs to the number of won matches for a season among modern teams for two Major League Baseballs, which in 1962 showed a result of 40-120 (.250) and Detroit Tigers in 2003 - 43-119 (.265 ) These results are often compared to the 1899 Spiders season.
Consequences
Due to setbacks, the Robinsons moved the team to the minor league after the end of the 1899 season. Spiders became one of the four teams that left the NL at the end of the season (the Senators , who finished the championship in 11th place, Louisville Colonels (4th place) and Baltimore Orioles (4th place) became the other. After the 1899 season, there was a ban on the ownership of several clubs by one owner.
In 1900, the Robison sold the Spiders to Charles Somers and John Kilfoyl. In 1900, at that time the lower American League (before that the Western League) took over the Cleveland Lake Shores. In 1901, after the American League received major league status, the club changed its name to Cleveland Blues and then to Cleveland Indians .
Literature
- J. Thomas Hetrick. Misfits! The Cleveland Spiders in 1899. Jefferson, NC .: McFarland and Co., 1991. ISBN 0-89950-608-9