1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys season

The 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys season was the ninth season for the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise. The team finished eighth and last in the National League with a record of 23–113–2, 66.5 games behind the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.
As of 2025, this remains the worst single-season record in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise. The 1890 team also recorded the most losses and the second-fewest wins in a season.
This was the final season for the team with the name "Alleghenys," as the team changed its name to the Pittsburgh Pirates the next season, a name it has retained to the present day.

Background

The Alleghenys' season essentially ended when most of its stars defected to the Pittsburgh Burghers of the Players' League. With a decimated roster, the Alleghenys made a poor showing. The 113 losses by the Alleghenys set a new major league record, breaking the old record of 111 set the previous year by the Louisville Colonels.
That record would stand until 1899, when the Cleveland Spiders lost 134 games, the all-time record.
Poor crowd attendance meant that this team played 97 of its 136 games on the road, finishing with a road record of 9-88.
The team's.093 road winning percentage is the lowest in MLB history for a minimum of 60 games. This would be the last time the Pittsburgh franchise reached the century mark in the loss column until 1917, when the team was known as the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Harry Decker	92	354	97	.274	5	38
1B		86	340	77	.226	0	38
2B	Sam LaRocque	111	434	105	.242	1	40
SS	Ed Sales	51	189	43	.228	1	23
3B	Doggie Miller	138	549	150	.273	4	66
OF	Tun Berger	104	391	104	.266	0	40
OF	John Kelty	59	207	49	.237	1	27
OF		86	358	92	.257	1	33

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
	83	304	65	.214	0	21
Fred Roat	57	215	48	.223	2	17
	41	168	40	.238	1	14
Mike Jordan	37	125	12	.096	0	6
Eddie Burke	31	124	26	.210	1	7
Paul Hines	31	121	22	.182	0	9
Sam Crane	22	82	16	.195	0	3
Ducky Hemp	21	81	19	.235	0	4
Fred Dunlap	17	64	11	.172	0	3
Dad Lytle	15	55	8	.145	0	0
Henry Youngman	13	47	6	.128	0	4
Peek-A-Boo Veach	8	30	9	.300	2	5
Robert M. Gibson	3	13	3	.231	0	1
	3	11	2	.182	0	0
	2	8	0	.000	0	0
Harry H. Gilbert	2	8	2	.250	0	0
Phil Routcliffe	1	4	1	.250	0	1
Frank McGinn	1	4	0	.000	0	0
	1	3	0	.000	0	0
Fred Truax	1	3	1	.333	0	1
Fred Clement	1	1	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	25	178.1	3	19	5.60	76
	14	119.2	2	9	5.11	32
	13	108.0	2	11	4.67	41
Bill Sowders	15	106.0	3	8	4.42	30
Crazy Schmit	11	83.1	1	9	5.83	35
Bill Phillips	10	82.0	1	9	7.57	25
	10	79.1	4	6	5.22	18
	9	70.2	2	5	6.62	22
Bill Day	6	50.0	0	6	5.22	10
Phenomenal Smith	5	44.0	1	3	3.07	15
Charlie Heard	6	44.0	0	6	8.39	13
	4	28.0	1	2	7.07	8
Duke Esper	2	17.0	0	2	5.29	9
John Coleman	2	14.0	0	2	9.64	3
George Ziegler	1	6.0	0	1	10.50	1

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	8	58.0	0	5	8.38	14
Henry Jones	5	31.0	2	1	3.48	13
Charlie Gray	5	31.0	1	4	7.55	10
Robert Murray Gibson	3	12.0	0	3	17.25	3
Alfred Lawson	2	10.0	0	2	9.00	2

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Fred Hayner	1	0	0	0	13.50	1
	1	0	0	0	inf	0