<Tr> <Td> 1945 </Td> <Td> Philadelphia Phillies </Td> <Td> NL </Td> <Td> 46 </Td> <Td> 108 </Td> <Td>. 299 </Td> <Td> 52 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1938 </Td> <Td> Philadelphia Phillies </Td> <Td> NL </Td> <Td> 45 </Td> <Td> 105 </Td> <Td>. 300 </Td> <Td> 43 </Td> </Tr> <P> The 1899 Cleveland Spiders own the worst single - season record of all time (minimum 120 games) and for all eras, finishing at 20--134 (. 130 percentage) in the final year of the National League's 12 - team era in the 1890s; for comparison, this projects to 21--141 under the current 162 - game schedule, and Pythagorean expectation based on the Spiders' results and the current 162 - game schedule predicts a record of 25--137 . </P> <P> The Spiders had a fair amount of success in the 1890s, with seven straight winning seasons from 1892 to 1898 and a Temple Cup victory in 1895 . Meanwhile, the once four - time American Association champion St. Louis Browns had fallen to 29--102 in 1897 and to 39--111 (including 19--67 on the road) in 1898 . But the Spiders ownership, the Robison brothers, bought the Browns in time for the 1899 season, creating a conflict - of - interest situation which was later outlawed . On the eve of the season, they traded almost all of Cleveland's good players to St. Louis for very little in return, with respectable results for St. Louis and disastrous results for Cleveland . </P>

Who had the worst record in mlb history