Realgeorge
Mentor
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2004
- Messages
- 675
The Nationals, second coming of the Washington Senators, former Montreal Expos franchise, have a pretty good ballclub. They embarrassed the Orioles in the first meeting of a Baltimore and Washington baseball team since September 1971. Ah Spring Training. The score was 9-5.
Mixed emotions .... I grew up with the Senators, they were my team, and they sucked. Terribly. Frank Howard, Mike Epstein, and Ted Williams managing were my heroes. The Senators would lose 9 or 10 out of 12 every year to the splendid Baltimore Orioles, who were perennial contenders in the 1960s. But the Senators jilted me in 1971, moving to Dallas on the wings of cash from the Minnesotan Bob Short, also a notorious crooked politician. Ol' Shorty showed up at a Baltimore Orioles game in 1972 and the local fans poured beer on his head. The Senators departure left a huge gap in a town that had had a MLB team for a hundred years.
But the Washington I knew in 1964 still had white, decent neighborhoods and was charming and quiet. By 1968 it was a giant race riot, and by 1975 an all black town. Its new tenants had completely destroyed DC's beautiful rowhouse neighborhoods by 1980, and the town remains a giant slum to this day. So we have the three baseball franchises of DC. First, the Griffith Senators from 1910s to 1961. Then the expansion Senators of 1961 to 1971 after Cal Griffith moved his Nats to Minneapolis, where they prospered and made the 1964 World Series on the bats of Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison. Today we have the Bud Selig special Nationals, owned by the league and still officially hunting for ownership.
The expansion Senators were horribly managed (at the GM level) andtraded their franchise playerson a punk pitcher named Denny McLain. They finished in last place 7 of their 10 seasons, and were absolutely awful. Their stadium, once known as "DC Stadium" and then "Robert F. Kennedy" or "RFK" was notorious for cold hot dogs and warm beer, and abushes of fans walking to their cars in the parking lot after games. Now we have the league-owned Montreal Expos nee the Washington Nationals. They have three years in RFK stadium, and are supposed to have a new deluxe facility by 2008. Courtesy of the Washington DC taxpayer.
I will watch and listen curiously. A spooky reminder of the past -- each team has its own radio stations, and there I was, listening to the same game, back and forth on two radio signals, one with the Orioles broadcast team, the other with the new Senators -- er, Nationals announcers. Just like 1967, but with the startling result of the Nats beating the O's. Somewhere Frank Howard is smiling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10080-2005Mar 5.htmlEdited by: Realgeorge
Mixed emotions .... I grew up with the Senators, they were my team, and they sucked. Terribly. Frank Howard, Mike Epstein, and Ted Williams managing were my heroes. The Senators would lose 9 or 10 out of 12 every year to the splendid Baltimore Orioles, who were perennial contenders in the 1960s. But the Senators jilted me in 1971, moving to Dallas on the wings of cash from the Minnesotan Bob Short, also a notorious crooked politician. Ol' Shorty showed up at a Baltimore Orioles game in 1972 and the local fans poured beer on his head. The Senators departure left a huge gap in a town that had had a MLB team for a hundred years.
But the Washington I knew in 1964 still had white, decent neighborhoods and was charming and quiet. By 1968 it was a giant race riot, and by 1975 an all black town. Its new tenants had completely destroyed DC's beautiful rowhouse neighborhoods by 1980, and the town remains a giant slum to this day. So we have the three baseball franchises of DC. First, the Griffith Senators from 1910s to 1961. Then the expansion Senators of 1961 to 1971 after Cal Griffith moved his Nats to Minneapolis, where they prospered and made the 1964 World Series on the bats of Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison. Today we have the Bud Selig special Nationals, owned by the league and still officially hunting for ownership.
The expansion Senators were horribly managed (at the GM level) andtraded their franchise playerson a punk pitcher named Denny McLain. They finished in last place 7 of their 10 seasons, and were absolutely awful. Their stadium, once known as "DC Stadium" and then "Robert F. Kennedy" or "RFK" was notorious for cold hot dogs and warm beer, and abushes of fans walking to their cars in the parking lot after games. Now we have the league-owned Montreal Expos nee the Washington Nationals. They have three years in RFK stadium, and are supposed to have a new deluxe facility by 2008. Courtesy of the Washington DC taxpayer.
I will watch and listen curiously. A spooky reminder of the past -- each team has its own radio stations, and there I was, listening to the same game, back and forth on two radio signals, one with the Orioles broadcast team, the other with the new Senators -- er, Nationals announcers. Just like 1967, but with the startling result of the Nats beating the O's. Somewhere Frank Howard is smiling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10080-2005Mar 5.htmlEdited by: Realgeorge