Table of Content

  • Sept. 12, 1962: Tom Cheney strikes out a record 21 batters

    June 15, 2019: In 2018, for the first time in any season, strikeouts exceeded hits. The top 20 batters who struck out the most in a season have done so since 2009. The top 30 are all since 2000. Dozens of pitchers today average a strikeout or more every inning. In an average game, between… Read more

  • Aug. 9, 1967: Down 7-0, Nats top Twins in 20 innings

    May 28, 2019: The slow climb of Gil Hodges’ Washington Senators teams had brought the 1967 squad to heights unknown: a 55-55 record after shutting out the Twins in Minnesota on August 7. None of the previous expansion Nats in their six years had reached .500 so far into the season. A month earlier on… Read more

  • The 1969 A.L. home-run race

    April 23, 2019: Harmon Killebrew signed with the Washington Senators in 1954 and appeared in his first major league game in June under the “Bonus Baby” rule that kept him on the Nats’ roster. It took him until 1959 to win a regular job as the Senators’ third baseman. He proceeded to tie for the… Read more

  • Hondo: the expansion Senators’ enduring star

    April 21, 2019: If anyone on the expansion Senators teams is remembered today by casual fans, surely that player is Frank Howard, the massive slugger brought to Washington in what undoubtedly was the best trade longtime GM George Selkirk ever made. Posting on a Facebook page about the expansion team in May 2020, Russ White,… Read more

  • A ‘joke’ game and scoring changes cost The Big Train a record

    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… Read more

  • July 13, 1954: Dean Stone’s weird All-Star victory

    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… Read more