1899 Louisville Colonels season

The 1899 Louisville Colonels baseball team finished with a 75–77 record and ninth place in the National League. Following the season, owner Barney Dreyfuss bought the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and folded his Louisville team. Manager Fred Clarke and most of the players moved over to the Pirates where they enjoyed much more success in the coming years. The Colonels, a perennial also-ran through their National League run from 1892 to 1899, appeared to be on the cusp of becoming a strong team when the National League contracted from 12 teams to 8 after the end of the 1899 season. Louisville started the season with a 15–37 record after 52 games, but then went 60–40 in their last 100 in the first glimpse of what was to become a strong Pirates team in the years to come. Many star players, including several Hall of Famers, of the first decade of the 20th Century came from the 1899 Louisville squad including Clarke, Honus Wagner, Rube Waddell, Deacon Phillippe, Tommy Leach and Claude Ritchey.

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	Chief Zimmer	75	262	78	.298	2	29
1B	Mike Kelley	76	282	68	.241	3	33
2B	Claude Ritchey	148	540	162	.300	4	73
SS	Billy Clingman	110	369	97	.263	2	45
3B	Tommy Leach	106	406	117	.288	5	57
OF	Charlie Dexter	81	298	76	.255	1	34
OF	Dummy Hoy	155	636	194	.305	5	49
OF		148	602	206	.342	5	70

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
Honus Wagner	148	575	196	.341	7	114
Doc Powers	49	169	35	.207	0	22
	39	138	37	.268	1	18
Malachi Kittridge	46	131	26	.198	0	13
Dave Wills	24	94	21	.223	0	12
Topsy Hartsel	30	75	18	.240	1	7
Fred Ketchum	15	61	18	.295	0	5
Tacks Latimer	9	29	8	.276	0	4
Farmer Steelman	4	15	1	.067	0	2
Tom Messitt	3	11	1	.091	0	0
Bob Langsford	1	4	0	.000	0	0
Burley Bayer	1	3	0	.000	0	0
Harry Croft	2	2	0	.000	0	0
Rudy Hulswitt	1	0	0	----	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
Bert Cunningham	39	323.2	17	17	3.84	36
Deacon Phillippe	42	321.0	21	17	3.17	68
Pete Dowling	35	298.1	13	17	3.05	89
Walt Woods	26	186.1	9	13	3.28	21
Rube Waddell	10	79.0	7	2	3.08	44
Bill Magee	12	71.0	3	7	5.20	13
Patsy Flaherty	5	39.0	2	3	2.31	5
Clay Fauver	1	9.0	1	0	0.00	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
Harry Wilhelm	5	25.0	1	1	6.12	6

Relief pitchers

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

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
	3	1	0	0	4.50	5