Washington Manager Clark Griffith acquired Edger Rice, known as “Sam,” as payment for a $300 debt owed by the owner of Rice’s Virginia State League team. It’s hard to imagine a better bargain for a future Hall of Famer. Rice joined Griffith’s squad in Washington on July 30, 1915, in the midst of a long … Continue reading Aug. 7, 1915: Sam Rice debuts on the mound as the Big Train starts in right →

The record for the most stolen bases in an inning was set by the Senators against Cleveland on July 19, 1915, but the total hardly stands up to scrutiny. In the top of the first inning of the game at League Park, the official scorer credited the Nats with eight steals, but under today’s rules, … Continue reading July 19, 1915: Nats credited with a record 8 steals in an inning →

College Park, home of the University of Maryland’s main campus, is just eight miles by car outside of Washington, D.C. The proximity came into play during World War II when travel restrictions forced major league teams to find spring training sites nearer their home cities. In 1943, ’44 and ’45, the Senators arranged to train … Continue reading The University of Maryland, the Nats and MLB →

In the heat of the 1924 pennant race, the Senators acquired veteran minor leaguer Wade Lefler to provide what the team hoped would be a potent bat off the bench. The left-hand hitter did not disappoint. In four pinch-hit at-bats, Lefler drove in six runs with two doubles and a single. His first hit drove … Continue reading Wade Lefler’s key pinch hits in September 1924 →

Orestes “Minnie” Minoso, inducted in 2022, is the only member of the Hall of Fame to have played for the expansion Washington Senators. He did so during that franchise’s worst season, 1963, when he was 39 years old. It was the last time he played on semi-regular basis, appearing 109 games and getting up 363 … Continue reading Minnie Minoso, the only expansion Senator in the Hall of Fame →

Without the hitting heroics of Howie Kendrick, the Washington Nationals would not have reached the 2019 World Series. The veteran infielder, acquired at the trade deadline in 2017 for a minor league pitcher who never made it, had a career season in 2019. Then, his 10th-inning grand slam beat the favored Dodgers in Game Five … Continue reading Howie Kendrick: 2019 post-season hero →

George Barclay “Win” Mercer was a 20-game winner in back-to-back seasons for woeful Washington teams in the 1890s’ National League. He batted .305 as a frequently used position player in a five-year stretch from 1897 to 1901. By all accounts, the popular Mercer was a handsome ladies man and a big-time gambler. His nickname, reflecting … Continue reading Win Mercer, 1890s’ heartthrob, two-way star of the N.L. Senators →

Let us count the ways the Nationals of 2022 smashed a number of long-standing franchise and season records for futility. A 55-107 fifth-place finish, worst since Washington regained a team in 2005, can do that. Dave Martinez The Nationals finished 46 games behind the Braves and Mets, who tied with 101 wins, and 14 games … Continue reading The unwelcome records of the 2022 Nationals →

Joe Hardy was the fictional baseball star created by J. Douglass Wallop in his 1954 novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, adapted soon after for Broadway and film as Damn Yankees. Middle-aged Washington Senators fan Joe Boyd makes a deal with the devil to become a great player (Joe Hardy) and, he hopes, … Continue reading Who, if anyone, was the model for ‘Joe Hardy’? →

When Paolo Espino took the mound to start the Nationals’ penultimate game of 2022, he was on the verge of becoming the pitcher who threw the most innings in a season without winning a game. In 18 previous starts, although his record was 0-8, he always had lasted at least four innings. Espino Facing the … Continue reading Paolo Espino’s near-record innings pitched without a win →

During the depth of the Great Depression, with a quarter of the American workforce unemployed, baseball attendance had fallen by 40 percent. A World’s Fair was scheduled in Chicago in the summer of 1933, and the city’s mayor wanted a major sports event to accompany it. He asked the publisher of the Chicago Tribune for … Continue reading All-Star Games in D.C.: 1937, 1956, 1962, 1969 and 2018 →

Washington’s Tanner Rainey saved a 3-2 victory for Josiah Gray over the Phillies on July 6, 2022, in Philadelphia. As poorly as the Nats were playing, nobody could imagine then that it would be seven weeks – 43 games – before another Nationals’ starting pitcher would win a game. Victories by starters clearly are far … Continue reading 2022: A record 43 games without a starter winning →

Connie Mack’s Athletics were battling the Yankees for the 1928 pennant when Philadelphia came into Washington for a double-header on September 3, 1928. Down 6-0 with two outs left in the first game, Mack sent up 41-year-old Ty Cobb as a pinch-hitter against Bump Hadley of the Senators. Cobb, in his second year playing for … Continue reading Ty Cobb’s last hit came at Griffith Stadium →

Next to the apocryphal story about George Washington and the cherry tree, the most familiar tale told about the Father of Our Country involves what he threw across the Rappahannock River. It was even mentioned on the iconic Beach Boys’ album, All Summer Long, in 1964.* Unlike the essential details of young George chopping down … Continue reading Walter Johnson, George Washington and the Rappahannock →

The New York Yankees reclaimed first place in American League with a 17-0 pounding of Washington on Tuesday, July 6, 1920, at the ballpark that would become known as Griffith Stadium. What made the game more memorable, however, was what happened in the fifth inning. That's when the Yankees scored what at that time was … Continue reading July 6, 1920: Nats yield a record 14 runs in an inning →

For six years, starting in 1982, Robert F. Kennedy Stadium played host to a star-studded old-timers game that was originally called the Cracker Jack Old Timers Baseball Classic. On July 19, 1982, a crowd of 29,196 attended the first of these five-inning games with the proceeds benefiting players who retired before the pension system in … Continue reading The Cracker Jack Classics and other RFK exhibitions →

For a variety of reasons, stolen-base attempts ticked up in 2022 after several years of decline. Bigger bases and restrictions on the positioning of infielders take effect in 2023, with the intent of producing more base hits and probably increasing successful stolen-base attempts. So it’s not likely steals will ever again drop to the level … Continue reading Team with the fewest stolen bases in a season? The 1957 Senators →

On July 4, 1940, at Griffith Stadium, speedy Senators’ outfielder George Case had nine hits in a double-header against the Athletics, matching a major league record that still stands. In the modern era (post-1900), this record is held by six others, but was achieved the last time more than 60 years ago. Case’s 9-for-10 was … Continue reading July 4, 1940: George Case ties record for most hits in a double-header →