Editing Cleveland Spiders (section)

===1899 season===
{{Main|1899 Cleveland Spiders season}}
In 1899, the Spiders' owners, the Robison brothers, bought the [[St. Louis Cardinals|St. Louis Browns]] out of bankruptcy and changed their name to the Perfectos. However, they kept the Spiders as well—a blatant conflict of interest. Believing the Perfectos would draw greater attendance in more densely populated St. Louis, the Robisons transferred most of the Cleveland stars, including future Baseball Hall of Famers [[Cy Young]], [[Jesse Burkett]], and [[Bobby Wallace (baseball)|Bobby Wallace]], to St. Louis. They also shifted a large number of Cleveland home games to the road (for instance, the original [[Opening Day]] game was shifted to St. Louis).

With a decimated roster, the Spiders made a wretched showing. They finished with a dismal win-loss record of 20–134 (.130), the [[List of worst Major League Baseball season win–loss records|worst in MLB history]], 84 games behind the pennant-winning [[Brooklyn Dodgers|Brooklyn Superbas]] and 35 games behind the next-to-last (11th) place [[Washington Senators (1891–1899)|Washington Senators]]. Their batting records were the worst in the league in runs, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, walks, stolen bases, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CLV/1899.shtml|title = 1899 Cleveland Spiders Statistics}}</ref>

The Robisons announced after buying the Perfectos that they intended to run the Spiders as a "sideshow", and Cleveland fans apparently took them at their word. The Spiders' first 16 home games drew a total of 3,179 fans, or an average of 199 fans per game. Due to these meager attendance figures, the other 11 NL teams refused to come to League Park, as their cut of the revenue from ticket sales did not even begin to cover their hotel and travel expenses. The Spiders were thus forced to play 85 of their remaining 93 games on the road. Counting the large number of home games that had been shifted to the road earlier in the season, they only played 42 home games during the season, including only eight after July 1, and finished 9–33 (.214) at home and 11–101 (.098) on the road. Only 6,088 fans paid to attend Spiders home games in 1899, for a pitiful average of a mere 145 spectators per game in 9,000-seat League Park.

The 101 road losses is a major-league record that will never be threatened, as current scheduling practices have teams play a maximum of 81 away games. The team's longest winning streak of the season was two games, which they accomplished once: on May 20–21. Spiders opponents scored ten or more runs 49 times in 154 games. Pitchers Jim Hughey (4–30) and Charlie Knepper (4–22) tied for the team lead in wins.

The 1962 [[New York Mets]], 40–120 (.250), and the 2024 [[Chicago White Sox]], 41–121 (.253), own the modern records in their respective leagues for the most losses, and thus draw frequent comparisons to the 1899 Spiders for futility.