The web of baseball history connects the 2025 Rockies to the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. That’s not a good thing.

The 1899 Spiders finished 20-134 for a .130 winning percentage. The Rockies entered the weekend with a 9-47 record, on pace to finish 26-136. If the Rockies were to continue at their current wretched pace, they would lose more games than the Spiders, but the Rockies’ winning percentage would not be as bad.

Still, to be mentioned alongside the Spiders, the 1962 Mets (40-120-1), the 2024 White Sox (41-121) and a slew of other losing teams is, frankly, embarrassing.

But if you’re a history buff like me, the Spiders’ story is captivating.

So I did a little digging and found some nuggets. For example, the Spiders had six losing streaks of 11 or more games, and their longest winning streak was two games. They only pulled that miracle off once. For the record, the Rockies entered the weekend having won two consecutive games just once this season, beating the Braves, 2-1, at Coors Field on April 30, and beating the Giants, 4-3, at San Francisco on May 1.

Late last season, when the White Sox were writing one of the most infamous chapters in baseball history, The Washington Post’s Frederic J. Frommer wrote a terrific story about the Spiders. Wrote Frommer: “Cleveland finished a whopping 84 games out of first place in the 12-team National League — 35 games behind the 11th-place Washington Senators — in what turned out to be their final season, one of the most outlandishly awful campaigns in the history of American pro sports.”

Here’s the weird part. In 1898, anchored by Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young, the Spiders were actually pretty good, finishing 81-68. So why the free fall to ignominy? It was simple. Ownership.

Before the 1899 season, Spiders owner Frank Robison, a Cleveland streetcar tycoon, purchased the St. Louis Browns (later to become the Cardinals) from Chris Von der Ahe. According to a 1979 article in the Baseball Research Journal, Von der Ahe had owned the Browns for nearly two decades, first in the American Association and then in the National League.

But Von der Ahe, facing enormous debts and family problems, sold the Browns to Robison. At that time, it was not uncommon for an owner to have a controlling interest in more than one baseball team. According to Frommer, Robison was frustrated by poor attendance in Cleveland, so he tore apart the Spiders and sent Young and the best players to St. Louis. As Frommer wrote, the Spiders’ roster was then “populated with dregs from the Browns.”

So, who were some of those immortal Spiders?

Let’s start with a 30-year-old rookie pitcher named Harry Colliflower. He was 1-11 with an 8.17 ERA. In 98 innings, he hit more batters (11) than he struck out (eight). It was his only major league season.

The Spiders also deployed a left-hander named Frederick M. Schmit. Everyone called him “Crazy Schmit.” By Spiders standards, he wasn’t that bad, going 2-17 with a 5.86 ERA. But there was a reason why he was named “Crazy.”

According to Baseball History Daily, Schmit had a fondness for drink.

In 1913, legendary Giants manager John McGraw wrote an article that ran in newspapers across the country. McGraw made the case that baseball had “practically eliminated the ‘bad actor,’ ” saying that the creation of the World Series and the development of baseball as a business had cleaned up the game. But McGraw also wrote that many players of his day “had paths worn from the ballpark to some favorite saloon and back to the grounds.”

Schmit was a prime example of McGraw’s “bad actor.” This, from Baseball History Daily: “McGraw wrote (and likely embellished) about Schmit, who was his teammate in 1892 and 1893 and who he managed in 1901 with the Baltimore Orioles: ‘We had a pitcher named Schmit generally and aptly called ‘Crazy’ Schmit. His habits were nothing for a temperance society lecturer to dwell upon as an example …’ ”

The Spiders also earned one of the great nicknames in major league history: the Exiles. After a doubleheader at home on July 1, the Spiders played only six of their remaining 93 games at home. The fans weren’t showing anyway, so why not? So the press dubbed them the Exiles.

On Aug. 24, the Spiders returned home for the last time and played the Giants for the first game of a six-game homestand. According to Baseball Reference, attendance for the first game was no more than 100, making it one of the smallest crowds in big-league history.

The Spiders saved their worst for last. In their final 41 games, they won just once. Included in that torturous run was a 24-game losing streak.

The Spiders played their last game of the season — and, as it turned out, their final game ever — against the Cincinnati Reds. According to Baseball Almanac, the Spiders used Eddie Kolb, a cigar-stand clerk and local amateur player, as their pitcher. Cleveland lost 19-3. According to Baseball Almanac, legend has it that the Spiders gathered at a Cincinnati hotel after the last game and presented the team’s traveling secretary, George Muir, with a diamond locket, saying, “You had the misfortune to watch us in all our games.”

After the 1899 season, the National League dropped its four most unprofitable clubs — Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington and Louisville — and operated as an eight-team league for the next 62 years.

The Spiders disappeared into the dark corners of baseball history until teams like the 2024 White Sox and 2025 Rockies brought them out of hiding.