It must be said that in choosing these teams, the same temporal criterion was applied as was applied for the best teams. In plain English, although the focus is on one particular year (except for the practically identical 1938-39 Phillies), the team had to be in the middle of a bad period to be considered. For example, one will not find the 1935 Boston Braves here, despite their 38-115 record and their -3.05 SD score because, when looking at the relevant period, that season was an aberration. They were .500 or better in 1932, 1933, and 1934 and were near .500 from 1936 through 1938. In addition, the 1935 Braves' SD score is not one of the 50 worst of the twentieth century.

First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League. That famous saying originated long before the American League, honoring George Washington as "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen." But the newer version was long used to describe Washington, D.C.'s baseball franchise, which spent most of its history languishing at or near the bottom of the A.L. standings. The 1904 Washington Senators were almost certainly the worst Senators team ever, and this is no small feat.

THE WASHINGTON WHATS? » Wherever you read about Washington's A.L. franchise, including in this book, the club is almost invariably called "the Senators." Technically, however, that's not really right. In 1901, Washington opened play with the rest of the new American League. That team was officially dubbed "Senators" and remained so through 1905. In 1906, after five seasons of futility, management, led by money man Thomas Noyes, proposed changing the club's name. According to historian Marc Okkonen, "[T]he public was invited to suggest new names, but in the end the club elected to restore one of their old nineteenth-century names, NATIONALS [sic], and even displayed the nickname prominently on the players' shirt fronts." The silly thing about all this was that a number of N.L. clubs were commonly called "Nationals," and of course Washington wasn't in the National League. So for the most part, newspapers continued to refer to the club as the Senators, though "Nats" was convenient in headlines, and the two names essentially were used interchangeably as long as the franchise remained in Washington. However, not long after the passing of long-time owner Clark Griffith in 1955, the club was officially renamed "Senators," and that is how we remember them. -- Rob

Washington didn't have a winning record until its twelfth season as a member of the American League (1912). Two of the early teams, in 1904 and 1909, posted sub-.300 winning percentages. The Senators finished last or next-to-last every year from 1903 through 1911.

The 1904 Senators set a record, since broken, by losing their first 13 games on the way to a 38-113 season. (Yes, this is another record broken by those powerhouse 1988 Orioles.) Okay, the Senators actually had one tie in there, but they were 0-13 for all practical purposes. They finished 551/2 games behind pennant-winning Boston, 231/2 games behind seventh-place Detroit. Their SD score was -3.82, the eleventh worst of the century. Their two-year SD score (1903-04) of -7.61 is the third worst of the century.

Malachi Kittridge began the 1904 season as catcher and manager, but after Washington's 1-16 start, outfielder Patsy Donovan assumed the managerial duties. In an era of low-scoring games, the Senators had a really anemic offense. Of the eleven Washington players with 250-plus plate appearances, only three had an OBP above .300 and, even then, the highest was just .313, posted by outfielder Frank Huelsman. Of the same group of eleven Senators position players, seven had slugging percentages below .300.

The Senators' pitching was no prize, either. The American League ERA was 2.60 (again, this was an era characterized by low run production) and seven of the eight clubs finished at 2.83 or lower. Then you've got the Senators, at 3.62. Washington's ERA was worse than the next-worst ERA (St. Louis, 2.83) by more than the margin which separated the next-worst ERA from the best ERA (Boston, 2.12).

The Senators lost 20 of 22 games to the first-place Boston Americans, and 18 of 22 to the second-place New York Highlanders, the third-place Chicago White Sox, and the fourth-place Cleveland Blues. Given that New York finished just 11/2 games out of first, can we say that Washington had an indirect impact on the pennant race? Does it really matter? Washington did almost manage a season split with sixth-place St. Louis, winning 10 of 21.

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