All-Time Indians: Jesse Burkett

Note: Jesse Burkett is included in this "All-Time Indians" series because I consider all the teams to play in Cleveland to be important to the city and the Indians history. This includes the Forest Citys, the Naps, the Blues, the Infants, the Buckeyes and of course the Spiders.

Jesse Burkett had a short, but hot, career with the Spiders that ended with the dismantling of the team in 1899. For his efforts, Burkett became the only member of the Cleveland Spiders to be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame with the team. In his best season, 1896, he lead the National League in hits, batting average, runs scored, games played and total bases. He lead the league in hits and average the year before as well.

His Spider records are even more impressive as over a three year span (1896-1898) he set the records for at bats (624), runs (160), hits (240), batting average (.410) and slugging percentage (.541). Even compared to players in the modern age, Burkett still maintains the top three best seasons as far as runs scored, has the most hits in a season as a Cleveland player and holds the top two spots in both batting average and slugging percentage over a single year. If you get to know one player from the Cleveland Spiders teams of the 1890's, know Cy Young. If you get to know two players, make the second one Jesse Burkett. He died in 1953.