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:: History of baseball in Washington D.C. :: In October 1960, the Washington senators shifted to Minnesota where they became Twins but didnt perform as it was anticipated. They lost at least 100 games in each of its first four seasons. During the 1971 season owner Bob Short lost $3 million in the three seasons and eventually the team moved to Texas, where they became the Rangers. A crowd of 14,460 fans witnessed the last game of the club as Senators at RFK Stadium on Sept. 30, 1971, against the New York Yankees. The baseball returned to Washington D.C. after 33 years when Major League Baseball declared the repositioning of the Montreal Expos to the nation's capital. On September 30, 1971, the last game was played in Washington at R.F.K. Stadium, when the team that would become the Texas Rangers was strained to surrender their final game to the Yankees due to the over interference of the Senators fans. Even though the Senators led by 7-5 in the ninth inning with two men out they forfeited the game. When Washington's National League team became the sufferer of league reducing from 12 to eight teams in 1899, the Washingtons franchise became one of the first eight major league teams in the newly formed American League. As an AL team the Senators played in Washington for 70 seasons. Following the decade of 1930s they had only four winning seasons. In their last 11 seasons as the franchise of D.C. the Senators suffered four 100-loss seasons. According to Phil Wood, a Senators historian, Washington was a city that didnt support baseball. He said, It's a knee-jerk reaction to say that Washington didn't support baseball. The team was always losing. The Senators in their formative years featured player like Walter Johnson who became the greatest pitcher of all time. He made his Senators debut in 1907 and went on to win 417 games. At that time the team was owned by Clark Griffith. He productively led the club in 1924, which was perhaps also the most exciting World Series in baseball history. The same season the Senators won their first and only Fall Classic title when catcher Muddy Ruel scored the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning of a 4-3 Game 7 victory against the New York Giants at Griffith Stadium. Johnson and Griffith are perhaps among the most celebrated 14 Hall of Famers who played in the jersey of Senators. Other Senators in the Hall of Fame include infielder Bucky Harris, who also managed the team; shortstop Joe Cronin; and outfielders Heinie Manush, Sam Rice and Goose Goslin, the only man to play in all 19 of the Senators' World Series games. The 1937 play-off at Griffith Stadium is famous for the line drive by Earl Averill that ruptured the toe in Dizzy Dean's left foot and changed the course of his career. In 1956 Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial each hit home runs. Hall of Famer Williams administered the Senators from 1969-71. In his opening season in the uniform of Senators he hit .406 with a successful home run into Griffith Stadium's center-field bleachers on the first pitch. Later Harmon Killebrew flourished as one of the preeminent long ball hitters of all time. Due to the history of Washington franchises, the people have raised there are doubts about whether Washington will actually be a better market for a pro baseball team than Montral. Moreover, Washington is an African-American city (59%), and that African-Americans generally dont support the baseball as compared to the Whites. However, in 2005, the team attracted the crowd of 2,731,993, which is looke upon as an unfavorable in the first season of recent expansion team. On April 14, 2005, the Washington Nationals won their first regular season home game at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C, 5-3 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. President George W. Bush kept up a tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch on opening day in Washington, exactly 95 years after William Howard Taft started the tradition at Griffith Stadium. |
