May 9, 2020 (revised Jan. 29, 2021): The Covid-19 pandemic caused the 2020 season to be reduced to 60 games, the first time since the labor contract turmoil of 1994 and 1995 that fewer than 162 games have been played. Prior to that, the 1981 season was cut short by a player strike, and teams … Continue reading The effect of playing time lost to crises
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‘First in War…’: the myth that never died
I remember reading Douglass Wallop’s 1954 novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant in junior high school around 1960, not knowing at the time that it had been turned into the hit 1955 Broadway musical Damn Yankees. Wallop was born 100 years ago in Washington, attended the University of Maryland in College Park and … Continue reading ‘First in War…’: the myth that never died
Social media groups and other Nats sites
January 10, 2020 (updated January 2025): A number of other places on the web are devoted to Washington, D.C., baseball, past and present. Here's are links to some of them: "The Expansion Washington Senators: https://www.facebook.com/groups/463338547208950/ Because the pages is now private, you need an invitation from a current member to join. D.C. Baseball History Yesterday … Continue reading Social media groups and other Nats sites
The ups and downs of a championship season
November 20, 2019: The 2019 season that ended with a world championship for Washington began slowly, even before a month-long slump dropped the Nationals – famously in retrospect – to 19-31, the farthest any team had fallen in the wild-card era (since 1995) before eventually winning the World Series. Surprisingly, given the team's hot finish, … Continue reading The ups and downs of a championship season
Jackie Price at Griffith Stadium in 1950
August 21, 2019: Jackie who? If that was your reaction, you obviously never heard of the man described in 1950 in the Sporting News 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 … Continue reading Jackie Price at Griffith Stadium in 1950
When D.C. nearly got the Padres
February 19, 2019: As soon as it became clear in September 1971 that the Senators would move to Texas, a committee appointed by D.C. Mayor Walter Washington was dispatched to San Diego to talk to the majority owner of the expansion Padres, C. Arnholt Smith. The Padres were about to finish last in the National … Continue reading When D.C. nearly got the Padres
Sept. 27, 1940: Red Sox rout Nats, 24-4, at Fenway Park
January 1, 2019: As the 1940 season was ending, three Senators' pitchers combined on Sept. 27 to surrender the most runs allowed in an American League game that year. The potent Red Sox lineup of 1940 hadn’t been enough to overcome weak pitching. In between four second-place finishes (1938-39 and 1941-42), the Sox were mired … Continue reading Sept. 27, 1940: Red Sox rout Nats, 24-4, at Fenway Park
The ‘Little Big League’ film’s ties to the Senators and sabermetrics
June 7, 2018 (updated 2021, 2023): The film "Little Big League" from 1994, directed by Andrew Scheinman, with a screenplay by Gregory Pincus and Adam Scheinman (the director's brother), has several clear, if coincidental, connections to the Senators. The premise of the movie is that a 12-year-old, played by Luke Edwards, inherits the Minnesota Twins … Continue reading The ‘Little Big League’ film’s ties to the Senators and sabermetrics
A history of the ownership of the expansion Senators
May 23, 2018: The franchise that became known as the expansion Senators had an 11-year run in the Nation’s Capital from 1961 through 1971 before moving to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to become the Texas Rangers. The expansion team, created as soon as the original Senators departed for Minnesota, essentially had three sets of owners. … Continue reading A history of the ownership of the expansion Senators
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.
Washington baseball history 