It’s finally back! After 86 years, the World Series is returning to
our nation’s capital. The Washington Nationals host the Houston Astros
in D.C. in Game #3 of the 2019 Series this Friday. The last time
Washington, D.C. saw a World Series game was October 7, 1933, when the
Washington Senators lost the Series to the New York Giants at a place
called Griffith Stadium.
Named for the owner of the Washington
Senators, Griffith Stadium traces its origins to 1903, the year both the
National & American Leagues merged and played in the first World
Series. The ballpark sat at the corner of Florida & Georgia Ave in
Northeast D.C.; today, the site is occupied by the Howard University
hotel. I lived off Florida Avenue and within a mile of that street
corner in the early 1990s; I should have paid a visit when I had the
chance.
The Senators were perennial losers for most of their
history, but they had some bright moments. Walter Johnson played 20
years for the Senators, and led the club to its only World Series
victory. Johnson is #1 all-time in career shutouts, and #2 in wins;
he’s one of the “first five” inaugurated into Cooperstown, alongside Ty
Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, and Christy Mathewson. One of Christy
Mathewson’s many wins came at Luckett Field in Sherman, TX, when the New
York Giants pitcher shutout the Austin College Kangaroos during spring
training in 1908.
Griffith Stadium was still under construction
in 1910 when Walter Johnson and the Senators headed west on a road trip.
On September 25th, Johnson notched one of his 417 wins. He was nearly
unhittable, striking out 11 St. Louis Browns in a 1-hit complete game
shutout. On the mound facing Johnson that day for the Browns was Austin
College Kangaroo Alex Malloy. Malloy held his own, going the distance,
striking out 7, and allowing only 6 hits. But it wasn’t enough against
Walter Johnson, one of baseball’s all-time greats.
Two American
political traditions began at Griffith Stadium that same year.
President Taft threw a ceremonial first pitch to open the season for the
Senators. Over the 109 years since, a first pitch has been tossed by
every single American president but one…the current one. Griffith
Stadium also hosted the first ever Congressional baseball game in 1910.
Austin College Kangaroo skipper Mike Ramsey was a coach in the 2018
edition of this annual contest between Republicans & Democrats.
The lone Washington Senators World Series title came in 1924. That
year, Austin College Kangaroo Charlie Robertson got two starts at
Griffith Stadium for his Chicago White Sox. Robertson had thrown a
perfect game in 1922, but injuries were hobbling his career two years
later. Robertson lost both decisions against the Senators. Austin
College’s Ray Morehart, a White Sox teammate of Robertson, was able to
slap a triple off of Walter Johnson in another matchup at Griffith
Stadium in August of 1924. However, it wasn’t enough to secure the win.
The juggernaut that was the 1924 Washington Senators would later
defeat the New York Giants in the World Series. Walter Johnson got the
Game #7 win in relief, when a walk off single in the 12th inning brought
a title to Washington at Griffith Stadium.
The Homestead Grays
called Griffith Stadium home for much of the 1930s and 1940s. Josh
Gibson, the star of the old Negro League team, is considered by many to
be the best player who ever played the game. Often referred to as the
“black Babe Ruth,” those who actually saw him play began to instead
refer to the Bambino as the “white Josh Gibson.” Clark Griffith, the
owner of the Senators, once claimed that Gibson hit more home runs in
Griffith Stadium “than the entire American League.” Gibson passed in
1947, the year Jackie Robinson ended the injustice of baseball’s color
barrier.
Griffith Stadium was home for the NFL’s Washington
franchise after owner George Preston Marshall moved the club from Boston
in 1937. Led by QB Sammy Baugh, the former TCU star who as a freshman
watched his Horn Frogs defeat Austin College, Washington won the NFL
title in 1937. That championship year was not without its blemishes
however. On October 10, 1937, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated
Washington 14-0 at Griffith Stadium thanks in part to a fourth quarter
interception return for a TD by Austin College Kangaroo Maurice Harper.
Washington finished a respectable 6-3-1 in 1944, including a win over
the Brooklyn Tigers at Griffiths Stadium. Led by former Austin College
coach Pete Cawthon, the Brooklyn Tigers were poised to upset Washington
on their home field. Cawthon’s Tigers erased a Sammy Baugh led 14-0
lead and tied the game heading into the fourth quarter. The first of
the two Brooklyn touchdowns occurred on a drive that included a number
of completions to Austin College Kangaroo Joe Carter. A late Washington
field goal ensured a 17-14 triumph that afternoon; the AC duo of
Cawthon and Carter returned to Brooklyn wondering what might have been.
Joe Carter, Kangaroo class of 1932, ended his 11-year NFL career one
year later with 22 TDs and nearly 2000 yards receiving.
Joe
Cronin replaced Walter Johnson as the Senators manager in 1933, and led
the club to its last World Series appearance. 12 years later, Cronin
was managing a Boston Red Sox team with one of the best outfields in
history: Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, and Austin College Kangaroo Tom
McBride. On August 4, 1945, Boston traveled to Griffith Stadium.
There, McBride drove in 6 runs in one inning, a major league record that
stood for over 50 years. In 1948, Cronin traded McBride back to where
he had gotten his own managerial start. McBride headed to Griffith
Stadium, and became part of the lineup of the Washington Senators.
During two seasons at Griffith Stadium, McBride recorded 98 hits over
148 games in a largely pinch-hitting role. He also slugged his first
and only career home run on April 20, 1948 at Griffith Stadium. With
the Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, and the New York Yankees in
town, McBride stepped into the batter’s box in the bottom of the first
with the bases loaded. He slugged a grand slam to center field, and the
Senators defeated New York 9-1.
Washington was at Yankee Stadium
later that summer, when McBride accomplished a feat yet to be equaled
by any other Major League outfielder. DiMaggio, Berra, and Rizzuto
could not get it going at the House that Ruth built, and kept hitting
one fly ball after another to McBride in left. At game’s end, the
Senators had won 3-1 and McBride had an astonishing 12 put outs. In the
history of Major League baseball, no outfielder has ever had more in a
single game than this Washington Senator / Austin College Kangaroo.
With his career well behind him in 1972, McBride talked to the Texas press about his baseball past:
On Austin College:
“I almost went to SMU on a football scholarship when [future AC Coach]
Ray Morrison was the coach. I wound up at Austin College in Sherman for
two seasons.”
On Ted Williams: “He’s the best I ever saw.
He was liked and admired by the other players. It was the sports
writers he had trouble with. I’m proud to say he’s a real personal
friend of mine.”
On his best day in baseball: “Driving in six
runs in one inning was a great one. Another good day came in 1948 when
I was playing for Washington. I hit a bases loaded home run off Ed
Lopat of the Yankees.”
The Washington Senators bolted for
Minneapolis in 1960, and Griffiths Stadium was torn down in 1965.
Baseball struggled to return to the capital city for decades, in part
because of the resistance of the Baltimore Orioles just 30 minutes away.
The absence of Washington baseball ended in 2005, when the Montreal
Expos relocated to D.C.. The new Washington Nationals moved into their
new stadium in 2008, made the post season in 2012, and have finally
returned to the World Series this year.
The sad legacy of
Washington professional sports is division along racial lines. The
Senators were one of the last Major League baseball teams to integrate,
and the move to Minnesota was heavily influenced by the absence of
African Americans in the upper Midwest. George Preston Marshall was a
notorious racist. His football club was the last NFL franchise to sign
African Americans in 1962, and only then because of intervention by
President Kennedy.
The 2019 Washington Nationals are different.
Nationals Park was built in the predominantly African American
neighborhood of SE Washington, along the Anacostia river. The Park lies
on Washington Metro’s Green Line, connecting it with Howard University
and other meccas within the African American communities of D.C. The
2019 Nationals are also one of the most racially diverse teams in
baseball, a byproduct when a club focuses only on performance.
World Series fans entering Nationals Park from Centerfield on Friday
will walk by two statues: Walter Johnson of the old Washington Senators
& Josh Gibson of the old Homestead Grays. I like that.
