Cellar Dwellers

The Worst Teams in Baseball History

Jonathan Weeks

• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN:
  9780810885332
• Edition: 1

In 1890, baseball's Pittsburgh Alleghenys won a measly 23 games, losing 113. The Cleveland Spiders topped this record when they lost an astonishing 134 games in 1899. Over 100 years later, the 2003 Detroit Tigers stood apart as the only team in baseball history to lose 60 games before July in a season. These stories and more are told in Cellar Dwellers: The Worst Teams in Baseball History, a colorful tribute to the sport's least successful clubs.

Cellar Dwellers spans three centuries of professional baseball, recounting the seasons of those teams whose misadventures have largely been forgotten over time. Chapters not only cover the stories of the luckless teams, they also include reams of statistics and detailed player profiles of those who helped the clubs—and those who helped them fail. In addition to the Alleghenys, Spiders, and Tigers, the cellar dwellers of baseball include:

1904 and 1909 Washington Senators1916 Philadelphia Athletics1928 and 1941 Philadelphia Phillies1932 Boston Red Sox1935 Boston Braves1939 St. Louis Browns1952 Pittsburgh Pirates 1962 New York Mets
While many books revel in the glories of teams whose exploits have become legendary, the stories found in this volume offer an engaging alternative to the thrill of victory. Embellished with comical and amusing anecdotes alongside historical perspectives, Cellar Dwellers will entertain baseball fans and fascinate those who love baseball history.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Chapter 1: 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys
• Chapter 2: 1899 Cleveland Spiders
• Chapter 3: 1904 Washington Senators
• Chapter 4: 1909 Washington Senators
• Chapter 5: 1916 Philadelphia Athletics
• Chapter 6: 1928 Philadelphia Phillies
• Chapter 7: 1932 Boston Red Sox
• Chapter 8: 1935 Boston Braves
• Chapter 9: 1939 St. Louis Browns
• Chapter 10: 1941 Philadelphia Phillies
• Chapter 11: 1952 Pittsburgh Pirates
• Chapter 12: 1962 New York Mets
• Chapter 13: 2003 Detroit Tigers
• Chapter 14: Dishonorable Mention
• Appendix: All-Time Losers
• Bibliography
• About the Author