Cellar Dwellers: The Worst Teams in Baseball History
Cellar Dwellers: The Worst Teams in Baseball History, Jonathan Weeks’s imminently readable and informative book, provides an introductory look at the thirteen worst teams (defined by winning percentage) in major league history, discusses the historically horrendous season, and offers a few glimpses of the team’s best and worst players. ... Instead of providing a series of boring statistics and game scores to prove just how pathetic each team was, Weeks reconstructs insightful historical situations that help contextualize each team’s disastrous season. ... Well-written and thoroughly researched, Cellar Dwellers is ideal for the casual baseball fan or historian.(Journal of Sport History)Baseball enthusiast Jonathan Weeks has written a first book in a lively style accessible to fans ranging from Little Leaguers to members of the Society for American Baseball Research. ...Weeks introduces readers to useful print and online sources for baseball statistics and biographical materials about players and coaches, then provides for each chapter his list of primary sources, books, newspaper and magazine articles, and Websites. The index names players, coaches, and baseball stadiums. This work provides highly entertaining reading for sports fans in all types of libraries.(American Reference Books Annual)Jonathan Weeks takes on the Hall of Losers in this cleverly written, well-researched book about baseball's all-time worst teams. I enjoyed the arsenal of amusing anecdotes and interesting stories. Thanks for bringing to life my 1952 Topps Pirates baseball cards—even though they were pathetic losers.(Rich Marazzi, co-author of Baseball Players of the 1950s, and rules consultant for the Yankees, Red Sox, and Blue Jays)A must read for baseball fans of all stripes,Cellar Dwellers: The Worst Teams in Baseball Historybrings to life a subject that has long needed to be put at center stage. This “best of the worst” collection of teams were much more than their sum won-loss totals that they accrued, a fact that author Jonathan Weeks brings to the forefront in glorious detail. Teams such as the 1932 Boston Red Sox, the 1952 Pirates and their ill fated distant cousins, the 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys, are spotlighted, along with many other hapless teams.Besides chronicling the actual day to day on-field futility, the author also delves into the inner workings of the various front offices, giving insight as to why they made their various decisions in regards to both player personnel and financial decisions. Weeks also gives insight into how the game was played during the 19thCentury, where over the top, rowdy behavior on the field was considered to be the norm, rather than the exception.An added bonus is the author’s short and precise bios of various players, many of whom went on to great glory with other teams. This long overdue work proves once and for all that there is more to the National Pastime than pennants, Worlds Series and statistical analysis.All in all,Cellar Dwellers: The Worst Teams in Baseball Historyis a walk off Grand Slam that will both teach and entertain at the same time!(Frank Russo, co-author of Bury My Heart at Cooperstown and webmaster of thedeadballera.com)