Page 82 - Most losses, one month, team - Washington, AL, 1909 - 29

When the subject of truly dreadful major league baseball teams comes up, the 1909 Washington Senators never seems to come up much. But while they may not have had the colorfulness of the 1962 Mets (40-120), the sad after effect of syndicate ownership of the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20-134), the fire sale look of the 1916 Philadelphia A's (36-117), or even the woefully inexperienced 1952 Pirates (42-112). But the 1909 Senators could match their futility with anyone, finishing the season 42-110, 56 games behind first place Detroit.

The 1909 Senators (officially they were called the Nationals, but Senators was the name that was used by most people) also had one of baseball's greatest players on it: Walter Johnson. But Johnson (undated photo above from the Picture Gallery) was just 21 years old, although he was in his third season. He would finish the year 13-25, although with an ERA typical of the era at 2.22, which was a league adjusted ERA+ of 109. The league leader (figured retroactively as ERA was still a couple of years in the offing) was Harry Krause of Philadelphia at 1.39. Johnson received just 1.81 runs of support per start in 1909. The Senators would score just 380 runs all year, the lowest total by any AL team in a full season.

(Uniform image from Dressed to the Nines)

July started for Washington in the middle of a five-game series with the Yankees in New York. The Yankees had won two of the first three including a doublheader split on June 29. On July 1, Charlie Smith of Washington faced Rube Manning of the Yankees. Washington scored a run in the fourth and the Yankees tied in the seventh and then won it in the 10th, 2-1. The next day Tom Hughes of the Yankees (there was another one on Washington) shut out Washington 3-0 and Johnson took the loss.

Washington moved on to Boston for a six-game series over the Independence Day weekend. Except the 4th of July was on a Sunday, so the teams couldn't play in Boston that day. The series consisted of three doubleheaders, played on July 3, 5, and 6. Boston won 5 of the 6 with Washington getting a wild (for the time) 7-6 win in the first game on July 5.

The next stop was Cleveland and there were no doubleheaders involved in this four-game series on July 8-10 and 12 (Sunday was an off day). And Washington managed to win the second game of the series behind Hughes 4-3. But two of the losses were shut outs and the Monday game on July 12 was cut to five innings because of rain. Washington was now 2-10 on the month.

First place Detroit was next on Washington's itinerary. The Tigers won 3-0 on July 13. The game on the 14th was rained out, so a doubleheader was scheduled for July 15. And the Tigers swept, winning 9-5 and then 7-0. In the final game of the series on July 16, Washington shut out the Tigers for 18 innings. However, the Tigers did the same and the game was called because of darkness as a 0-0 tie. Washington was now 2-13 in July.

Next stop: Chicago for five games. The Senators won the first game of the series on July 17 with Nick Altrock beating Bill Burns (they had been traded for each other earlier in the year). Burns would later go on to greater "fame" as one of the conspirators in the Black Sox scandal. The White Sox won the last four games of the series, including a one-hitter by Chicago's Frank Smith and a 12-2 win as well. Washington's July record was now 3-17.

St. Louis was the last stop on the road trip. The Browns weren't much better than Washington, but they still won three of the four games, with Washington winning only on July 23. Washington's Bob Groom started two games in three days during the series and lost both of them. But he was 7-26 on the season so he was used to it. Groom was born in nearby Belleville, Illinois, so it's likely that Washington manager Joe Cantillon wanted to feature him before his family. Washington headed back to the capital with a July record of 4-20.

Philadelphia was the first team in to play Washington and they were to play four games in two days in DC. The Athletics won all four games: 8-2, 5-2, 7-1, and 6-0. The Senators had sunk to 4-24 in July.

The month would end with three straight doubleheaders at home against the White Sox. Johnson beat Burns in the first game of the first doubleheader on July 29, 3-2. And then Washington lost five straight and scored just three runs. The month ended with Washington losing 29 games, winning 5, and tying one. They were outscored 162-56, so by my crude calculations they outperformed their expected wins by one! This was without counting the tie game. The Nationals played 36 games in 31 days and had 5 days off. It was truly a team effort.

The Senators would win seven games in August, eight in September and one in October. The Senators would use 45 different players on the year, a very high number even in today's game. Most of them, with the exception of Johnson, were not very good. Catcher Gabby Street would go on to greater fame as the manager of the Cardinals. Third baseman Wid Conroy would go on to fame as being on the back of the t-shirt I bought from Sean Forman at the SABR Convention. Clyde Milan was a rookie in 1909 and would go on to steal 495 bases in his career. But in his second full year, he batted .200 and slugged .258. Jimmy Sebring, who hit the first home run in World Series history in 1903, played one final game in his career for the 1909 Senators. He died in the winter of Bright's disease.

Washington hit a total of nine home runs on the season. Utility man Bob Unglaub led the team with three. And despite all the players coming and going, Washington wasn't trying out a lot of young players. The team's average age was 28. Johnson and Milan were the only young players who would have futures with the team.

Sources: Sporting News Complete Baseball Record Book, Retrosheet, Baseballreference.com, New York Times