1899 Louisville Colonels season

The 1899 Louisville Colonels baseball team finished with a 75–77 record and ninth place in the National League. Following the season, owner Barney Dreyfuss bought the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and folded his Louisville team. Manager Fred Clarke and most of the players moved over to the Pirates where they enjoyed much more success in the coming years. The Colonels, a perennial also-ran through their National League run from 1892 to 1899, appeared to be on the cusp of becoming a strong team when the National League contracted from 12 teams to 8 after the end of the 1899 season. Louisville started the season with a 15–37 record after 52 games, but then went 60–40 in their last 100 in the first glimpse of what was to become a strong Pirates team in the years to come. Many star players, including several Hall of Famers, of the first decade of the 20th Century came from the 1899 Louisville squad including Clarke, Honus Wagner, Rube Waddell, Deacon Phillippe, Tommy Leach and Claude Ritchey.

1899 Louisville Colonels
League	National League
Ballpark	Eclipse Park II
City	Louisville, Kentucky
Owners	Barney Dreyfuss
Managers	Fred Clarke

Regular season

Season standings

National League	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Brooklyn Superbas	101	47	0.682	—	61–16	40–31
Boston Beaneaters	95	57	0.625	8	53–26	42–31
Philadelphia Phillies	94	58	0.618	9	58–25	36–33
Baltimore Orioles	86	62	0.581	15	51–24	35–38
St. Louis Perfectos	84	67	0.556	18½	50–33	34–34
Cincinnati Reds	83	67	0.553	19	57–29	26–38
Pittsburgh Pirates	76	73	0.510	25½	49–34	27–39
Chicago Orphans	75	73	0.507	26	44–39	31–34
Louisville Colonels	75	77	0.493	28	33–28	42–49
New York Giants	60	90	0.400	42	35–38	25–52
Washington Senators	54	98	0.355	49	35–43	19–55
Cleveland Spiders	20	134	0.130	84	9–33	11–101

Record vs. opponents

1899 National League record Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Team	BLN	BOS	BKN	CHI	CIN	CLV	LOU	NYG	PHI	PIT	STL	WSN
Baltimore	—	7–7	6–8	9–5	4–9	12–2	6–7–2	10–4	6–7–1	9–3	8–6	9–4–1
Boston	7–7	—	6–8	5–7	10–4	11–3	9–5	12–2	5–9	10–4	8–6	12–2–1
Brooklyn	8–6	8–6	—	8–5–1	7–6	14–0	11–3	10–4	8–6	8–6	8–4–1	11–3
Chicago	5–9	7–5	5–8–1	—	8–6	13–1	7–7	7–6–1	5–9	6–7–2	8–6	4–9
Cincinnati	9–4	4–10	6–7	6–8	—	14–0	8–6	9–5–1	4–10	10–3–3	5–8–2	8–6–1
Cleveland	2–12	3–11	0–14	1–13	0–14	—	4–10	1–13	2–12	2–12	1–13	4–10
Louisville	7–6–2	5–9	3–11	7–7	6–8	10–4	—	7–7	7–6	6–8–1	5–9–1	12–2
New York	4–10	2–12	2–10	6–7–1	5–9–1	13–1	7–7	—	4–10–1	6–7	4–10	7–7
Philadelphia	7–6–1	9–5	6–8	9–5	10–4	12–2	6–7	10–4–1	—	6–8	7–7	12–2
Pittsburgh	3–9	4–10	6–8	7–6–2	3–10–3	12–2	8–6–1	7–6	8–6	—	7–7	11–3
St. Louis	6–8	6–8	4–8–1	6–8	8–5–2	13–1	9–5–1	10–4	7–7	7–7	—	8–6
Washington	4–9–1	2–12–1	3–11	9–4	6–8–1	10–4	2–12	7–7	2–12	3–11	6–8	—

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Chief Zimmer	75	262	78	.298	2	29
1B	Mike Kelley	76	282	68	.241	3	33
2B	Claude Ritchey	148	540	162	.300	4	73
SS	Billy Clingman	110	369	97	.263	2	45
3B	Tommy Leach	106	406	117	.288	5	57
OF	Charlie Dexter	81	298	76	.255	1	34
OF	Dummy Hoy	155	636	194	.305	5	49
OF	Fred Clarke	148	602	206	.342	5	70

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Honus Wagner	148	575	196	.341	7	114
Doc Powers	49	169	35	.207	0	22
George Decker	39	138	37	.268	1	18
Malachi Kittridge	46	131	26	.198	0	13
Dave Wills	24	94	21	.223	0	12
Topsy Hartsel	30	75	18	.240	1	7
Fred Ketchum	15	61	18	.295	0	5
Tacks Latimer	9	29	8	.276	0	4
Farmer Steelman	4	15	1	.067	0	2
Tom Messitt	3	11	1	.091	0	0
Bob Langsford	1	4	0	.000	0	0
Burley Bayer	1	3	0	.000	0	0
Harry Croft	2	2	0	.000	0	0
Rudy Hulswitt	1	0	0	----	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Bert Cunningham	39	323.2	17	17	3.84	36
Deacon Phillippe	42	321.0	21	17	3.17	68
Pete Dowling	35	298.1	13	17	3.05	89
Walt Woods	26	186.1	9	13	3.28	21
Rube Waddell	10	79.0	7	2	3.08	44
Bill Magee	12	71.0	3	7	5.20	13
Patsy Flaherty	5	39.0	2	3	2.31	5
Clay Fauver	1	9.0	1	0	0.00	1

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Harry Wilhelm	5	25.0	1	1	6.12	6

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Kitty Brashear	3	1	0	0	4.50	5

References

• 1899 Louisville Colonels team page at Baseball Reference