Editing Cleveland Spiders (section)

{{Short description|Baseball team}}
{{For|the minor league team known as the Cleveland Spiders|Cleveland Bearcats}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox baseball team
| founded = {{mlby|1887}}
| folded = {{mlby|1899}}
| location = [[Cleveland]], [[Ohio]]
| logo = [[File:1892 Cleveland Spiders.jpg|300px]]
| logo_caption = [[1892 Cleveland Spiders season|1892]] team photo at [[League Park]], with the original wooden stands visible in the background
| affiliations = {{ubl|
* [[National League (baseball)|National League]] (1889–1899)
* [[American Association (1882–1891)|American Association]] (1887–1888)
}}
| ballpark = {{ubl|
* [[League Park]] (1891–1899)
* {{nowrap|[[National League Park]] (1887–1890)}}
}}
| colors = {{ubl|
* Black, dark gray, white
* {{color box|#000000}} {{color box|#A9A9A9}} {{color box| 
#FFFFFF}}
}}
| series = [[Temple Cup]]
| series_champs = 1 ([[1895 Cleveland Spiders|1895]])
| former_names = Forest Citys / Cleveland Blues<br>(1887–1888)
| owner = [[Frank Robison]] & [[Stanley Robison]]<br>(1887–1899)
| manager = {{ubl|
* [[Joe Quinn (second baseman)|Joe Quinn]] (1899)
* [[Lave Cross]] (1899)
* [[Patsy Tebeau]] (1891–1898)
* [[Robert Leadley]] (1890–1891)
* [[Gus Schmelz]] (1890)
* [[Tom Loftus]] (1888–1889)
* [[Jimmy Williams (19th-century baseball manager)|Jimmy Williams]] (1887–1888)
}}
}}

The '''Cleveland Spiders''' were an American professional [[baseball]] team based in [[Cleveland]], [[Ohio]]. The team competed at the [[Major League Baseball|major league]] level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct [[American Association (1882–1891)|American Association]] (AA), followed by eleven seasons in the [[National League (baseball)|National League]] (NL). Early names for the team included the '''Forest Citys''' and '''Blues'''. The name Spiders itself emerged early in the team's [[1889 Cleveland Spiders season|inaugural NL season]] of 1889, owing to new black-and-gray uniforms and the skinny, long-limbed look of many players (thereby evoking the [[spider]] arachnid). [[National League Park]] served as the team's home for its first four seasons until the opening of [[League Park]] in 1891.

Amid seven straight winning seasons under manager [[Patsy Tebeau]], the team finished second in the National League three times &ndash; in [[1892 Cleveland Spiders season|1892]], [[1895 Cleveland Spiders season|1895]], and [[1896 Cleveland Spiders season|1896]]. While the Spiders never won the [[List of National League pennant winners|National League pennant]], the club did win the 1895 [[Temple Cup]], a two-team league championship playoff [[List of pre-World Series baseball champions|predating the World Series]]. The Spiders beat that year's pennant winner, the [[Baltimore Orioles (1882–1899)|Baltimore Orioles]] (unrelated to the [[Baltimore Orioles|modern franchise]]), four games to one in a best-of-seven game series. Six Spiders players were later inducted into the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|National Baseball Hall of Fame]], including left fielder [[Jesse Burkett]] and pitcher [[Cy Young]].

In 1899, owners [[Frank Robison|Frank]] and [[Stanley Robison]] purchased a second team &ndash; the bankrupt [[St. Louis Cardinals|St. Louis NL franchise]] &ndash; and sent all of the Spiders' top talent to that club, including future Hall-of-Famers Young, Burkett, and [[Bobby Wallace (baseball)|Bobby Wallace]]. The resulting Spiders roster finished the [[1899 Cleveland Spiders season|1899 season]] 20&ndash;134, a record which remains the [[List of worst Major League Baseball season records|worst for a single season]] in major league history. The Spiders were subsequently one of four teams contracted by the National League [[1899 in baseball|that year]]. Partly in response to the Robison brothers' actions &ndash; which effectively ended the Spiders franchise &ndash; the practice of "[[syndicate]] ownership" was later banned.

Spiders outfielder [[Louis Sockalexis]] played for the team during its final three seasons and is often credited as the first [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] to play major league baseball. The [[Cleveland Guardians]], major league successor to the Spiders in Cleveland, have long cited Sockalexis as the inspiration for their [[Cleveland Indians name and logo controversy|controversial former team name]] &ndash; "Indians" &ndash; though that claim is disputed.<ref>{{cite news |first=Joe |last=Posnanski |author-link=Joe Posnanski |title=The Cleveland Indians, Louis Sockalexis, and The Name |url=https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/news/the-cleveland-indians-louis-sockalexis-and-the-name |work=NBC Sports |date=March 18, 2014 |access-date=July 1, 2023}}</ref>