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
Category: The first Senators/Nationals
The original American League franchise, Griffith Stadium and the teams’ that played there, including the Homestead Grays
Earl McNeely, World Series hero
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
Elmer Valo, Senators’ record-setting pinch-hitter
November 21, 2017: On May 23, 1960, the Yankees released 39-year-old Elmer Valo, a 20-year major league veteran who had been carving a niche as a pinch-hitter and part-time outfielder in the late 1950s. He was signed the next day by the Washington Senators, who immediately anointed the left-hand hitter as the team’s go-to bat … Continue reading Elmer Valo, Senators’ record-setting pinch-hitter
Fact and fiction about Mantle’s ‘565-foot’ homer
November 17, 2017: Mickey Mantle’s mammoth home run off Senators' lefty Chuck Stobbs at Griffith Stadium on April 17, 1953, is one of the most famous tape-measure blasts of all time. In fact, most sources credit this homer with creating the “tape-measure’’ phrase, although obviously no tape measure was used to calculate the distance. (Mantle … Continue reading Fact and fiction about Mantle’s ‘565-foot’ homer
Mickey Mantle and D.C.
Nov. 6, 2017: On April 17, 1953, Mickey Mantle hit a home run off Washington lefty Chuck Stobbs that cleared the left-field stands at Griffith Stadium. The blast gave rise to the term "tape-measure homer," largely because Mantle and Yankees publicist Red Patterson later posed for a photo with a prop designed to look like … Continue reading Mickey Mantle and D.C.
Books about Washington baseball
October 25, 2017 (last updated December 2025): These are books I'd recommend about the history of baseball in Washington: The Washington Senators by Morris A. Bealle (1947, Columbia Publishing Company), long out of print, subtitled “An 87-year History of the World’s Oldest Baseball Club and Most Incurable Fandom.’’ The Washington Senators by Shirley Povich (1954, … Continue reading Books about Washington baseball
‘Boom Boom’ Beck and Camilo Pascual
October 24, 2017: Walter “Boom Boom” Beck was the Senators’ pitching coach from 1957 through 1959. He was hired in the fall of 1956 by Chuck Dressen, the Nats’ manager at the time and, like Beck, a native of Decatur, Ill. When Cookie Lavagetto replaced Dressen early in 1957, Boom Boom stayed on. Beck helped … Continue reading ‘Boom Boom’ Beck and Camilo Pascual
Griffith Stadium: graveyard for would-be home runs
May 15, 2016: Most of those familiar with baseball history know that cavernous Griffith Stadium, home of the original Washington American League team from its opening until 1960 and to the expansion Senators in 1961, was a difficult place to hit a ball out of the park. That was especially true before Calvin Griffith moved … Continue reading Griffith Stadium: graveyard for would-be home runs
‘Curly’ Ogden played a key role for 1924 champs
August 2, 2017: Warren Harvey “Curly” Ogden became part of World Series lore in 1924 when Washington manager Bucky Harris started him in game seven as a ploy to fool Giants manager John McGraw. The idea was to get McGraw to play rookie first baseman Bill Terry and other left-hand batters against the right-handed Ogden, … Continue reading ‘Curly’ Ogden played a key role for 1924 champs
Washington baseball history 