May 1, 2020: Getting caught stealing forever links Ray Morgan to Babe Ruth and Ernie Shore. Getting out of jail—a month into a year’s sentence—when Clark Griffith showed up in court with a scouting job offer—is another reason Morgan has a place in the game’s lore. Morgan played second base for the Washington Senators in … Continue reading Ray Morgan, Nats’ Deadball-era second baseman →

April 20, 2020: In his Hall-of-Fame career, Walter Johnson pitched in 64 games that ended 1-0. He won 38 of them. Johnson came in as a reliever in two of the 1-0 games (he lost both) and he didn’t complete three others. In no fewer than 10 of his 26 losses, the lone run he … Continue reading In 1-0 games, Walter Johnson won 38, lost 26 →

March 14, 2020: Clyde Kluttz was a backup catcher in the majors for nine seasons, the last two of them with the Washington Senators in 1951 and ’52, the last Griffith team to finish above .500. After seven years in the National League, Kluttz was sent to the minors by the Pirates after the 1948 … Continue reading Clyde Kluttz, veteran catcher on the last winning Griffith team →

December 9, 2019: One of the most famous stories about Babe Ruth’s career – especially when he was a pitcher – was the day he started a game against the Senators and was ejected after walking the first batter. The runner was thrown out trying to steal on the first pitch by Ruth’s replacement, Ernie … Continue reading Ernie Shore’s ‘perfect game’ against the Nats →

September 28, 2019: When the two worst teams in the American League met at Shibe Park for a September 20, 1942, doubleheader, Philadelphia’s legendary owner-manager Connie Mack readily admitted that the results were not foremost on his mind. His A’s had clinched the basement for a third season in a row, but the team avoided … Continue reading Sept. 20, 1942: War shadows Nats’ comeback vs. A’s →

July 31, 2019: 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 … Continue reading Aug. 18, 1953: Nats top Yanks, 10-8, with 7 in 9th →

As of July 4, 2019, 80 years had 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 to bear his … Continue reading Gehrig’s farewell speech and the Senators →

April 21, 2019: Walter Johnson's 1913 season ranks with one of the best ever by a pitcher. The Big Train went 36-7, leading both leagues in victories, complete games (29), innings (346), strikeouts (243), shutouts (11) and earned run average (1.14). The ERA figure is retrospective because the American League had just begun to use … Continue reading A ‘joke’ game and scoring changes cost The Big Train a record →

April 7, 2019: Dean Stone had a good enough rookie season with Washington in 1954 that he made the All-Star team, albeit as an injury replacement. Bob Porterfield, a 20-game winner the year before, and Senators first baseman Mickey Vernon were the Nats’ representatives before Stone was added after Ferris Fain of the White Sox … Continue reading July 13, 1954: Dean Stone’s weird All-Star victory →

March 26, 2019: Even as the war in Europe was nearing its end, major league rosters in 1945 were stocked with players too old for the draft – or the big leagues, under normal circumstances – or otherwise medical unfit.  The St. Louis Browns of 1944 had reached the World Series for the first time … Continue reading The 1945 A.L. pennant race →

December 1, 2018: Ellis Clary played for the Washington Senators and St. Louis Browns for nearly four seasons during World War II. He had an at-bat during the Browns’ only World Series appearance in 1944. Once his playing career ended, he spent six years as a coach with the Senators in the 1950s and more … Continue reading Ellis Clary: Wartime Nat; longtime Griffith scout, coach →

November 11, 2018: When the National League dropped four cities, including Washington, after the 1899 season, an opening was left for the upstart American League. What remained of the Kansas City team from the Western League was moved to Washington, D.C., where the Senators became an original member of the A.L in 1901. The team … Continue reading A history of the ownership of the original A.L. Senators →

October 21, 2018: On September 28, 1952, at Fenway Park, journeyman reliever Tom Ferrick pitched four scoreless innings and was the winner in a 5-4 Senators’ victory. The season-ending win let Washington finish at 78-76, the last time the original Senators had a winning year. It also would be Ferrick’s last time on a major … Continue reading Tom Ferrick kept the original Nats over .500 one last time →

February 21, 2018: Catcher Earl "Oil" Smith played on five World Series teams in his 12-year career, spanning the 1920s. Although Nats' shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh often gets blamed for his record eight errors, you could argue that it was Smith who cost the Senators a second world championship in 1925. Washington became the first team … Continue reading ‘Oil’ Smith, Peckinpaugh and the 1925 World Series →

January 16, 2018: A 26-year-old rookie who came up in August, George Earl McNeely drove in the winning run in the 12th inning of the seventh game in the 1924 World Series, the Washington Senator’s only championship. Before his playing days ended, McNeely, known by his middle name, managed  – and owned  – a Pacific … Continue reading Earl McNeely, World Series hero →