A rather similar story to what happened to the Florida Marlins after their '97 Series win. In 1914, the creation of a third major league, the Federal League, created a spike in player salaries. When the Federal League folded after the 1915 Season, the salaries went back down. The A's of this era, one of the greatest teams of the first half of the 20th century, began selling off their stars after a shocking sweep by the Braves in the '14 Series- some have argued that owner/ manager Connie Mack was upset at the outcome, but I think it had more to do with the rise in salaries. The A's were bad in '15, and even worse in '16 as several HOF'ers and good players were no longer there. While the team had a few good players, there were some awful replacements. Several of the pitchers lost 20 games, and the A's came in last every year until 1922. They really weren't a factor until the mid 20's, when Mack began building a second dynasty that won 2 Series and appeared in a third from '29 to '31. A dreadful aggregation that merits 5 stars on this list.

They could've only beaten the '99 Spiders. This team was awful in every aspect, but it was rubbed in that no other team in the American League was worse than a game under .500. They finished a whooping 40 games behind the 7th place Washington Senators. However, with 7 teams finishing within 14 games of each other, it sounded like it had the makings of a terrific pennant race.