The tragicomic story of the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, baseball’s futility leaders and winners of only 20 out of 154 games that season. Meet some of the most colorful men ever to wear a major league uniform. Follow their unfortunate train-travel odyssey through the National League and straight into obscurity. Marvel at the real desperation of a team forced to turn a cigar store clerk into a starting pitcher. Anecdotes galore. Reviewed in the 1999 Cleveland Indians Yearbook. Illustrations, appendices, sordid statistics, bibliography, and index.