Table of Content

  • The 1867 Nationals Western Tour

    The original Washington National Baseball Club was a top-level, ostensibly amateur, team in the 1860s. But like other highly skilled teams of that era, the team was made up of what are often known as “ringers” brought in from elsewhere and given no-show jobs by wealthy and well-connected baseball enthusiasts. The first professional league, the… Read more

  • A Washington baseball quiz

    Try to answer these before looking at BaseballReference.com. The answers to many of them can be found in posts elsewhere on this site. Who played in the last game of the original Senators and in the last game of the expansion Senators? Who in the A.L. finished second in batting average to Ted Williams the… Read more

  • Eddie Yost, the Nats’ ‘Walking Man’

    One of those rare players who never spent a day in the minors, Eddie Yost was the regular third baseman for Washington from 1947 through 1958. Despite batting averages between .224 and .249 in six of those seasons in D.C., Yost walked enough to lead the American League six times. He amassed a season-high 151… Read more

  • George Brunet: one-time Senator, all-time record holder

    Jan. 2, 2021: Left-hander George Brunet pitched for the expansion Senators in 1970, near the end of his MLB career, but he went on to pitch in Mexico well into the 1980s. When it was over, he had pitched professionally in a record 33 consecutive seasons, eventually setting the minor league record for strikeouts and… Read more

  • Is Soto the next Ted Williams? MLB.com thinks so

    Update Dec. 24, 2020: On Dec. 5, 2020, under the headline “This young star is the next Ted Williams,” MLB.com’s Mike Petriello took a deep dive into Juan Soto’s performance through the 2020 season. (https://www.mlb.com/news/juan-soto-is-on-hall-of-fame-track) Nationals fans are well aware of how jaw-droppingly good Soto has been since his debut, but it was great to… Read more

  • Bert Shepard, a Washington Senator, an American hero

    Dec. 1, 2020: Thanks to the 1949 film starring Jimmy Stewart, Monty Stratton remains the most famous ballplayer who came back after a leg amputation to play professionally again. Yet longtime Washington baseball fans know that an even more inspiring story is that of a man who pitched for the Senators. On August 4, 1945,… Read more