jay@npois.UUCP (Anton Winteroak) (02/20/85)
The National League formed with 8 teams in 1876. Many franchises failed, and many new ones were started. Several moved. Several competing leagues were formed and failed. Leading up to the last big change, the National League had twelve teams 1896-1899. One of these teams was the Cleveland Spiders. About twenty games into the 1899 Season, the owner of both the St. Louis Cardinals and the Spiders traded the Spiders' team captain and star short stop Lave Cross to the Cardinals for no one worth talking about. As a result, the Cardinals finished the season in fifth place, and the Spiders not only finished twelfth, but set some never to be broken records for fewest wins, lowest attendence, fewest runs scored, lowest team batting average, and the like. The spiders were amoung four teams to lose their franchise that year. Further reprocussions were that no one was allowed to be a signifigant stock holder in more than one franchise ever again. Incidently Lave's brother Monte played for 4 different major league teams in Philadelphia, and holds the single season record ( amoung those with enough at bats to claim a single season record) for lowest season batting average (single player).