More baseball

[logsdon at ccmail.ccsn.nevada.edu]

               Hmmmm.... "the spider at he heart of the web."  Well,
          for what it's worth, one of the origninal National League
          franchises was named the Cleveland Spiders.  They originated
          in 1889, I think, and passed from the scene in 1899 when
          they amassed the worst won-loss record in the history of
          Major League Baseball, something like 24-136.  They were a
          disgrace.  The interesting, and possibly relevant, thing
          about the Cleveland Spiders is  that, while they had a few
          good seasons(coming in second place once), they were not an
          outstanding team.  In fact, from what I have read, they were
          a motley crew that became somewhat notorious for their
          "rowdyism": they resorted to a certain amount of underhanded
          techniques that were later adopted by(I think) the early
          Oriioles and Giants, that represented a "win-at-all" cost
          mentality, and that found its worst expression in the
          infamous Blacksox scandal of 1919.
               I'm sure that Pynchon did not have the Cleveland
          Spiders--or McCarthy's New York Giants or the Backsox--in
          mind, but the existence and successes of some of these teams
          certainly points to a sinister side to the Great American
          Pastime.  Those interested in the sinister, possibly
          psychopathic element in baseball should leaf through a book
          entitled *The Field of Screams.* Yes, indeed, this book
          really exists.
                         Rich Logsdon