User:Spesh531/sandbox/Washington Senators (1961–1971)
| Washington Senators | |
|---|---|
 Washington Senators Cap Insignia | |
| Information | |
| League | American League |
| Ballpark | Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium (1962–1971) |
| Established | 1961 |
| Folded | 1971 (relocated to Dallas–Fort Worth and became the Texas Rangers) |
| Former ballparks | Griffith Stadium (1961) |
| Colors | Red, blue, white |
| Ownership | Bob Short (1969–1971) James Lemon (1963–1968) James Johnston (1963–1967) Elwood Richard Quesada (1961–1962) |
| Manager | Ted Williams (1969–1971) Jim Lemon (1968) Gil Hodges (1963–1967) Eddie Yost (1963) Mickey Vernon (1961–1963) |
| General Manager | George Selkirk (1963–1968) Ed Doherty (1961–1962) |
The Washington Senators baseball team was one of the American League's first expansion franchises. The club was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1961 to replace the recently departed Washington Senators who moved to Minnesota as the Minnesota Twins. Following the 1971 season, the team relocated to Dallas–Fort Worth, where they were renamed the Texas Rangers.
The 11-year tenure in Washington, D.C. saw the team plagued with poor performances, and were the definition futility, losing an average of 94 games a season. The team's struggles led to a twist on a joke about the old Senators: "Washington: first in war, first in peace and still last in the American League." Their only winning season was in 1969 when Hall of Famer Ted Williams managed the club to an 86–76 record, placing fourth in the AL East.[1]
The team played their inaugural season at old Griffith Stadium, then moved to the new District of Columbia Stadium in 1962 under a ten-year lease.
1961: Founding[edit]
When the original Washington Senators announced their move to Minnesota in 1960 to become the Twins in 1961, Major League Baseball decided to expand a year earlier than planned to stave off the twin threats of competition from the proposed Continental League and loss of its exemption from the Sherman Antitrust Act. As part of the expansion, the American League added two expansion teams for the 1961 season–the Los Angeles Angels and a new Washington Senators team. However, the new Senators were (and still are) considered an expansion team since the Twins retained the old Senators' records and history. The new Senators and Angels began to fill their rosters with American League players in a chaotic, last-minute expansion draft.
1962–1968: Struggle and staff turnover[edit]
Ownership changed hands several times during the franchise's stay in Washington and was often plagued by poor decision-making and planning. Owner Elwood Richard Queseda once wondered why he needed to pay players who did not belong in the majors and later agreed to a ten-year lease at D.C. Stadium—a move that would come back to haunt the Senators. In 1963, Quesada sold his stake in the club and resigned. Washington stockbrokers James Johnston and James Lemon owned the team briefly, suffering massive financial losses. Johnston died in 1967 and Lemon sold the team a year later to hotel and trucking executive Bob Short, who outbid a group headed by Bob Hope.
1969: Only winning season[edit]
Short named himself general manager and hired Hall of Famer Ted Williams as manager. Although Williams had never coached or managed at any level of baseball, he seemed to light a spark under the once-moribund Senators. Williams kept them in contention for most of the 1969 season, bringing them in at 86–76 for fourth place in the AL East. Attendance surged to over 918,000, at the time the highest in Washington baseball history.
1970: Return to failure[edit]
Following their brief success in 1969, owner Bob Short was forced to make many questionable trades to lower the debt he had incurred to pay for the team in late 1968; the purchase price was reported at $9.4 million.[2][3] Serving as his own general manager, Short was forced to make many questionable trades to service the debt and bring in much-needed revenue. As a result, the team rapidly fell back into the American League's cellar. Moreover, like their predecessors in their final few years in the nation's capital, the new Senators had to compete for an audience with the Baltimore Orioles, 45 miles (72 km) to the northeast, who by the 1960s were perennial contenders. The rise of the Orioles to regular championship contenders (winning their first World Series in 1966) did not help the Senators' cause either. Fans kept their distance from the Senators while the Orioles won four American League pennants and two World Series from 1966 through 1971.
1971: Bob Short's ultimatum[edit]
By the end of the 1970 campaign, Short had issued an ultimatum: unless someone was willing to buy the Senators for $12 million (by comparison, the New York Yankees were sold in 1973 for $8.8 million), he would not renew the stadium lease and would move the team elsewhere. At that season's end, Short dealt his best starting pitcher and the left side of his infield to the Detroit Tigers for erstwhile 30-game-winner Denny McLain, who had spent most of the 1970 campaign suspended because of gambling allegations. The deal—alleged by onetime Senators broadcaster Shelby Whitfield to have been made in order to secure the Tigers' vote in favor of the Senators' eventual move to Texas—turned Detroit back into contenders, while McLain was a monumental bust, losing a league-worst 22 games.
Relocation[edit]
At first, it looked like a move to Buffalo, New York, was in the works as at the time, a proposed multi-use stadium was in the cards in either downtown Buffalo where the current KeyBank Center is, or in suburban Lancaster to share with the Buffalo Bills; however, the project went over budget and the Senators started to look elsewhere while the Bills opened up Rich Stadium instead.[4] Short was especially receptive to an offer brought up by Arlington, Texas, mayor Tom Vandergriff, who had been trying to obtain a major league sports team to play in the Metroplex for over a decade. Years earlier, Charles O. Finley, the owner of the Kansas City Athletics, sought to relocate his baseball team to Dallas, but the idea was rebuffed and ultimately declined by the other AL team owners (the A's ultimately moved to Oakland, California in 1968). Arlington's hole card was Turnpike Stadium, a 10,000-seat park built in 1965 to house the Double-A Dallas–Fort Worth Spurs of the Texas League. However, it had been built to MLB specifications, and only minor excavations would be necessary to expand the park to accommodate major league crowds.
Vandergriff's offer of a multimillion-dollar down payment prompted Short to make the move to Arlington. On September 21, 1971, American League owners voted 10–2 to allow the move of the franchise to Arlington for the 1972 season.[5][6] Senators fans were livid, and enmity came to a head at the club's last game in Washington on Thursday, September 30. Thousands simply walked in without paying after the security guards left early, swelling the paid attendance of 14,460 to around 25,000, while fans unfurled a "SHORT STINKS" banner. With two outs in the top of the ninth inning and the Senators leading 7–5, several hundred youths stormed the field, raiding it for souvenirs. One man grabbed first base and ran off with it. With no security in sight and only three bases, umpire crew chief Jim Honochick forfeited the game to the New York Yankees.[7][8][9][10]
Legacy[edit]
Following the team's departure from that the nation's capital, the city went without major league baseball for 33 years. The now-Texas Rangers franchise retained the rights to the Senators name; when the relocation of the National League's Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C. in 2005 occurred, the team revived another longtime name, calling themselves the Washington Nationals.[11] However, the Rangers allowed the Nationals to use the curly W logo that originated with the expansion Senators.
Notable Washington Senators[edit]
- Frank Howard, an outfielder/first baseman on the team from 1965 until after the departure to Texas, was known for his towering home runs, and is considered the team's most accomplished player, winning two home run titles in 1968 and 1970.
- Minnie Miñoso, a left fielder on the team in 1963. He played with the Senators towards the end of his career and past his prime. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022.
Uniforms[edit]
As the second iteration of the Washington Senators, the team's first home uniforms featured navy pinstripes and navy-trimmed red letters. "SENATORS" was written in a style reminiscent of the Boston Red Sox's uniforms. Road gray uniforms simply featured "WASHINGTON" in navy block letters with navy numbers. Caps were all-navy with a red block "W" with white trim.
In 1963, the uniforms returned to a design similar to the final uniforms worn by the original Senators, with "Senators" in script letters and an underline tail that flowed after the second "s". However, the color scheme was reversed on the letters, with red serving as the dominant color. The cap also adopted the "curly W" insignia that was later used by the modern-day Washington Nationals. In 1968, the cap color became all-red with the "curly W" now in white with navy trim. Pinstripes would be removed from the home uniform in 1969.
List of Washington Senators seasons[edit]
| Washington Senators season-by-season record | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Wins | Losses | Win % | Place | Playoffs |
| 1961 | 61 | 100 | .379 | 9th in AL | — |
| 1962 | 60 | 101 | .373 | 10th in AL | — |
| 1963 | 56 | 106 | .346 | 10th in AL | — |
| 1964 | 62 | 100 | .383 | 9th in AL | — |
| 1965 | 70 | 92 | .432 | 8th in AL | — |
| 1966 | 71 | 88 | .447 | 8th in AL | — |
| 1967 | 76 | 85 | .472 | 6th in AL | — |
| 1968 | 65 | 96 | .404 | 10th in AL | — |
| 1969 | 86 | 76 | .531 | 4th in AL East | — |
| 1970 | 70 | 92 | .432 | 6th in AL East | — |
| 1971 | 63 | 96 | .396 | 5th in AL East | — |
| All-Time Record | 740 | 1,032 | .418 | — | — |
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "1969 Washington Senators Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2022-06-01.
- ^ "R.E. Short buys Nats: $9 million". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. December 4, 1968. p. 16. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
- ^ Fimrite, Ron (August 9, 1971). "Bad case of the Short shorts". Sports Illustrated. p. 20. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
- ^ "Unknown Stories of WNY: A parade of plans, a look back at Bills stadium proposals of the past". (Buffalo, New York). WGRZ. January 11, 2022.
- ^ "Owners let Washington move to Dallas–Fort Worth". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. September 22, 1971. p. 16. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
- ^ Minot, George Jr. (September 22, 1971). "Short Takes Senators to Texas". The Washington Post.
- ^ Lowitt, Bruce (October 1, 1971). "Fans 'finish off' the Senators". Free-Lance Star. (Fredericksburg, Virginia). Associated Press. p. 6. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
- ^ "Yankees wallop Senators, 9 to 0". Wilmington Morning Star. (North Carolina). UPI. October 1, 1971. p. 2C. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
- ^ McPherson, Myra; Huth, Tom (October 1, 1971). "Rowdy Fans Hand Senators Final Loss". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
- ^ Kalinsky, George; Shannon, Bill (1975). The Ballparks. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc.
- ^ Expos finally found a new home, ESPN, September 29, 2004