Baseball as Child: It's the old story. We're not sure who the father is, but we know the mother. It's Washington.

"First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League"

Sitting in the left field stands at Nationals Park at a Washington  – Minnesota game a couple of weeks ago, I wondered how many of the 28,000 fans understood D.C.’s role in baseball  history – and wondered how many realized that their team was playing the former Washington Nationals.

 

Writing about baseball’s amateur days, Harold Seymour says, in Baseball: The Early Years:  “Washington also caught the baseball bug. Government clerks formed the Potomac Club there in the summer of 1859, and that November, a second team, the Nationals, composed mainly of government clerks, joined them. These teams practiced and played each other in the backyard of the White House….In 1861, the 71^st New York Guards, later decimated at Bull Run, played the Washington Nationals behind the White House, and on the way home from Appomattox, the 133^rd New York Volunteers also took time out to play the Washingtons….[T]he Nationals managed to survive the war years. During an inter-city tournament in 1865, they took on the Brooklyn Atlantics and the Philadelphia Athletics before some 6000 (sic) fans. Government clerks were excused early to attend, and Andrew Johnson himself was on hand – the first president of the United States to see an inter-city match. The Nationals’ great tour of the Midwest in 1867 did much to arouse baseball interest….The Nationals’ 53-10 victory over the Cincinnati Reds was significant, because it had much to do with the reorganization of the Reds into America’s first outright professional team….”  The team’s exploits were covered by Hall of Fame sportswriter Henry Chadwick, who toured with the team.  

Soon, Washington was at the forefront of baseball’s venture into the world of play-for-pay. The District’s earliest professional baseball clubs included:

• Washington Olympics (National Association) (1871-1872)
• Washington Nationals (National Association) (1872)
• Washington Blue Legs (National Association) (1873)
• Washington Nationals (National Association) (1875)
• Washington Nationals (Union Association) (1884)
• Washington Nationals (American Association) (1884)
• Washington Nationals (National League) (1886-1889)
• Washington Senators (National League) (1891-1899)

The Washington Nationals, or Washington Senators, were 1 of the 8 charter teams of the fledgling American League beginning in 1901. The team was officially named the "Nationals" until 1956, but as early as 1905 it was generally referred to as the "Senators." In fact, the names “Nationals” and “Senators” were used interchangeably. Over the next 60 years, the Washington club struggled for respectability, only occasionally rising from also-ran to champion (1924 World Series victors, and 1925 and 1933 A.L. champs). The club’s reputation as a perennial loser reached exalted status with the wildly-successful Broadway musical Damn Yankees, the story of Joe Hardy, a man who sold his soul to the devil in return for leading the lowly Senators to an American League pennant. When Washington owner Calvin Griffith decided to move the franchise to Minneapolis-St. Paul at the end of the 1960 season, D.C. was given a consolation prize: an expansion team called – yes, the Washington Senators. And for another 10 years, beginning in 1961, the District remained home to major league baseball. The highlight, or at least most interesting season, of the expansion Senators was 1969, when the club experienced its only winning season (86-76), and skipper Ted Williams was named Manager of the Year.

Meanwhile, a little further west, Griffith’s Senators, now known as the Minnesota Twins, were rebuilding and becoming a team to reckon with in the A.L.

In 1972, the expansion Washington Senators moved to Dallas-Fort Worth and became the A.L. Texas Rangers.

To this day, Washington’s successors-Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers still use some form of the Senators' red, white and blue colors.

Washington, D.C., the birth place of so many viable professional baseball clubs, spent the next 33 years in baseball purgatory.

“First in war, first in peace, and .500 in the National League"

Finally, in 2005, the Washington Nationals were reborn when, under the ownership of major league baseball, The Montreal Expos were relocated to D.C. and sold to new owners.  Three statues loom high inside the front gates of Nationals Park. These bold images symbolize Washington’s pivotal role in baseball history, dating back to the game’s inception. Pitching great Walter Johnson (1907-1927) symbolizes the original Nationals/Senators. Slugger Frank Howard symbolizes the expansion Senators. Hall of Fame catcher Josh Gibson symbolizes Washington as the second “home” of the Negro National League Homestead Grays (informally known as the "Washington Homestead Grays") from the late 1930s to the 1940s. As a member of that team, Gibson routinely rattled the fences of Washington’s Griffith Stadium. Obviously, none of these men played for the current franchise.

If it was nurtured in Washington, by any name it’s Washington baseball.     

The next time interleague play brings the Texas Rangers into National Stadium, I wonder how many people in the stands will realize that their team is playing the former Washington Senators?

 

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