It started with the Cleveland Spiders in the 1890’s. They had been a decent team until their owners purchased a second team which was the St. Louis Perfectos in 1899.

The owners decided they wanted to excite the fan base in the new city so they dumped their roster from Cleveland to St. Louis. The Spides were really bad as they lost 11 games in a row 6 times during the season and their best pitcher was rookie Harry Colliflower. He won one game and lost eleven times.

Once while in Cincinnati while staying at their hotel, they talked a local tobaccoist named Eddie Kolb to be their starting pitcher for the next game. He lost 19-3.

Fans began staying home and not attending the games and the locals quit calling them the Spiders and smacked the nickname “Exiles” or “Wanderers” as the team name.

The team had a final recordd of 20 wins and 134 losses. Baseball executives and league brass began a move to outlaw owning more than one team.