List of worst Major League Baseball season records

Listed below are the Major League Baseball teams with the worst season won-lost records, as determined by winning percentage (.300 or less), minimum 140 games played.

Season records

The following teams finished the season with a 0.300 record or worse.

Season	Franchise	League	Wins	Losses	Pct.	GB
1899 !1899	Cleveland Spiders	National	20	134	.130	84
1890 !1890	Pittsburgh Pirates	National	23	113	.169	66.5 !66½
1916 !1916	Philadelphia Athletics	American	36	117	.235	54.5 !54½
1935 !1935	Boston Braves	National	38	115	.248	61.5 !61½
1962 !1962	New York Mets	National	40	120	.250	60.5 !60½
1904 !1904	Washington Senators	American	38	113	.252	55.5 !55½
1919 !1919	Philadelphia Athletics	American	36	104	.257	52
1898 !1898	St. Louis Browns	National	39	111	.260	63.5 !63½
2003 !2003	Detroit Tigers	American	43	119	.265	47
1952 !1952	Pittsburgh Pirates	National	42	112	.273	54.5 !54½
1909 Washington !1909	Washington Senators	American	42	110	.276	56
1942 !1942	Philadelphia Phillies	National	42	109	.278	62.5 !62½
1932 !1932	Boston Red Sox	American	43	111	.279	64
1941 !1941	Philadelphia Phillies	National	43	111	.279	57
1928 !1928	Philadelphia Phillies	National	43	109	.283	51
1915 !1915	Philadelphia Athletics	American	43	109	.283	58.5 !58½
1911 Boston !1911	Boston Rustlers	National	44	107	.291	54
1909 Boston !1909	Boston Doves	National	45	108	.294	65.5 !65½
1911 St. Louis !1911	St. Louis Browns	American	45	107	.296	56.5 !56½
1939 Philadelphia !1939	Philadelphia Phillies	National	45	106	.298	50.5 !50½
1937 !1937	St. Louis Browns	American	43	111	.279	56
1945 !1945	Philadelphia Phillies	National	46	108	.299	52
1938 !1938	Philadelphia Phillies	National	45	105	.300	43
1926 !1926	Boston Red Sox	American	46	107	.300	44.5 !44½

1898 St. Louis Browns and 1899 Cleveland Spiders

The 1899 Cleveland Spiders own the worst single-season record of all time and for all eras (with one exception), finishing at 20–134 (.130 percentage) in the final year of the National League's 12–team era in the 1890s. The only major league team to do worse, the 1884 Wilmington Quicksteps of the Union Association, played only 18 games, compiling a 2–16 record and a .111 winning percentage.

With shorter schedules during much of the 19th century, it was much more common for teams to finish with sub-.300 winning percentages. For example, the 1876 Cincinnati Reds (not the same franchise as the modern-day Reds) went 9–56 for a .138 percentage. By 1899, the National League was playing the standard 154–game schedule.

The Cleveland Spiders had had a fair amount of success in the 1890s, with seven straight winning seasons 1892-98 and a Temple Cup victory in 1895. Meanwhile, the once four-time American Association champion St. Louis Browns had fallen to a then-all-time low of 39–111 in 1898. But Spiders ownership (the Robison brothers) bought the Browns in time for the 1899 season, creating an obvious conflict-of-interest situation which was later outlawed. On the eve of the season, they traded almost all of Cleveland's good players to St. Louis for very little in return, with respectable results for St. Louis and disastrous results for Cleveland.

The 1899 Spiders set the major league record for most consecutive losses in a season (24, from July 26 to September 16), most losses in a month (27 in July), had 6 double-digit losing streaks. They lost 40 of their last 41 games. They also finished 84 games behind the 1899 National League champion Brooklyn Dodgers. The 1899 Browns, renamed the "Perfectos" and staffed with all the best players from the 1898 Spiders—six of the Spiders' eight starting position players and four starting pitchers, including the great Cy Young—would improve by a whopping 44½ games, from 39–111 to 84–67. However, all St. Louis did ultimately was to trade places with Cleveland in the standings. The Browns/Perfectos would be renamed the St. Louis Cardinals in 1900, and are unrelated to the American League St. Louis Browns that adopted the discarded nickname and also appear on this list.

After the 1899 season, the National League contracted from twelve to eight clubs, and the Spiders were one of four teams to fold, along with Baltimore, Louisville and Washington. Baltimore had also been stripped of its best players by Brooklyn in 1899, to somewhat less dramatic effect but still enough to speed their demise. The American League soon arose to fill the void.

Other teams

The 1935 Boston Braves featured Hall of Famers Rabbit Maranville (age 43) and Babe Ruth (age 40). Braves owner Emil Fuchs had promised Ruth an ownership stake in the Braves and a chance to manage the club in the near future, but had little intention of delivering either. Ruth retired on June 1, 1935, having hit .181 in 72 at-bats for the Braves, with six home runs (the last three all coming on the same day, May 25, 1935, at Pittsburgh).

The 1939 Browns drew 386 fans to the park for a 7–4 home loss to Detroit on September 27.

The 1962 New York Mets were an expansion team created to fill the void caused when the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers left New York City after the 1957 season. The Mets, filled with castoffs like "Marvelous" Marv Throneberry as well as aging Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn and low-talent rookies such as Choo Choo Coleman, finished with the third-worst winning percentage in the modern era and the modern-era (1900-present) record for most losses. The Mets went on to finish last or next-to-last for seven years in a row, before they shocked the baseball world by winning the 1969 World Series.

The 2003 Tigers seemed like a sure bet to break the 1962 Mets' record for most losses when they stood at 38–118 after 156 games, but they won five of their last six to avoid ignominy. On September 27, in their next-to-last game, the Tigers came back from an 8–0 deficit to beat the Minnesota Twins 9–8 (the Twins, having just clinched the division, were resting their starters). When the Tigers won the season finale to avoid tying the record, they received a standing ovation from the crowd. Mike Maroth, a starting pitcher for the 2003 Detroit Tigers, went 9–21 and became the first pitcher to lose 20 games in a season since Brian Kingman dropped 20 games for the 1982 Oakland Athletics. Ramón Santiago of the Tigers became only the 12th Triple Crown loser (a player who finishes last in all of the three Triple Crown categories) in modern MLB history.

Three years after losing 119 games, the Detroit Tigers went 95–67 and won their 10th American League pennant, before losing the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals. Players common to the 2003 and 2006 Tigers teams included Brandon Inge, Ramón Santiago (who spent 2004 and 2005 with the Seattle Mariners), Craig Monroe, Dmitri Young (released in September 2006), Omar Infante, Mike Maroth, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson, Jamie Walker, Wilfredo Ledezma, and Fernando Rodney.

Changes of scenery

Several franchises on this list wound up relocating to new cities and becoming successful clubs.

• The (original) Washington Senators became the Minnesota Twins and have won nine division titles, three league pennants, and two World Series championships in their new home.
• The Browns, whose only postseason appearance in a half-century in St. Louis was a loss in the 1944 World Series to their same-ballpark rivals the Cardinals, became the Baltimore Orioles and have won six league pennants and three World Series championships in Baltimore.
• The Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City where they served as an unofficial "farm club" for the New York Yankees in the closest modern equivalent to the 1898-1899 situation. The team then moved to Oakland under new ownership, where they have won six league pennants and four World Series.
• The Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee, where they had meteoric success with two pennants and one World Series win; and later to Atlanta, where they have enjoyed many divisional championships, several league pennants, and one World Series championship during the 50-plus years since they left Boston.

See also

• List of best Major League Baseball season won-loss records

External links

• Statistics and game logs at Baseball Reference
• "The 1899 Cleveland Spiders: Baseball's Worst Team" article by David Fleitz
• "Nothing worse than the 1899 Cleveland Spiders" ESPN article by Rob Neyer. Neyer's 10 worst teams of all time.
• Neyer, Rob, and Eddie Epstein. Baseball Dynasties: The Greatest Teams of All Time. Norton, 2000, 384 p.
• Excerpt from Chapter 8 ("The Worst Teams of All Time") of Neyer and Epstein's Baseball Dynasties.
• On a Clear Day They Could See Seventh Place: Baseball's Worst Teams, by George Robinson. Profiles of several of the teams on this list.
• MISFITS! Baseball's Worst Ever Team, by J. Thomas Hetrick. About the 1899 Spiders.