Jackie who? If that was your reaction, you obviously never heard of the man described in 1950 as “America’s Greatest Entertainer.” Price, an amazingly acrobatic baseball player, performed his tricks with bat, ball and glove for a capacity crowd before the Senators’ game on July 22, 1950. He “bowed out to the loudest fan salute … Continue reading Jackie Price at Griffith Stadium in 1950 →

The Yankees were cruising to their fifth straight A.L. pennant in 1953 when they took on the Senators in New York for a three-game series on Aug. 18. The Nats[1] had just split a doubleheader in Boston with the Red Sox, while the Yanks had won four straight after pummeling the then-sixth place A’s in … Continue reading Aug. 18, 1953: Nats top Yanks, 10-8, with 7 in 9th →

As this is written on July 4, 2019, 80 years have passed since Lou Gehrig gave his heartfelt and heartbreaking speech at Yankee Stadium. He bid farewell to baseball, famously calling himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth” despite being stricken with an incurable illness that would claim his life and come … Continue reading Gehrig’s farewell speech and the Senators →

In 2018, for the first time in any season, strikeouts exceeded hits. The top 20 batters who struck out the most in a season have done so since 2009. The top 30 are all since 2000. Dozens of pitchers today average a strikeout or more every inning. In an average game, between 15 and 18 … Continue reading Sept. 12, 1962: Cheney strikes out a record 21 batters →

The slow climb of Gil Hodges’ Washington Senators teams had brought the 1967 squad to heights unknown: a 55-55 record after shutting out the Twins in Minnesota on August 7. None of the previous expansion Nats in their six years had reached .500 so far into the season. A month earlier on July 8, Washington’s … Continue reading Aug. 9, 1967: Down 7-0, Nats top Twins in 20 innings →

Harmon Killebrew signed with the Washington Senators in 1954 and appeared in his first major league game in June under the “Bonus Baby” rule that kept him on the Nats’ roster. It took him until 1959 to win a regular job as the Senators’ third baseman. He proceeded to tie for the American League lead … Continue reading The 1969 A.L. home run race →

If anyone on the expansion Senators teams is remembered today by casual fans, surely that player is Frank Howard, the massive slugger brought to Washington in what undoubtedly was the best trade longtime GM George Selkirk ever made. The Senators had to give up the team’s best pitcher, Claude Osteen, who helped the Dodgers win … Continue reading Hondo: the expansion Senators’ enduring star →