Frommer: Washington vs. New York, a forgotten baseball rivalry revived?
From Fred Frommer at The Hardball Times on July 1, 2015:
If the Washington Nationals are able to become kings of the hill this year, they might have to pull off a New York-New York takedown – just as their forebears did nearly a century ago.
In 1924, the underdog Washington Senators unseated the defending American League champion New York Yankees to win their first pennant and then upset the New York Giants to claim Washington’s first and only World Series championship. This year, the roles of the two powerful cities are reversed. The Nationals, the preseason favorites to win the World Series, are facing a surprising challenge from the New York Mets in the National League East. Over in the American League, the Yankees are fighting for the lead in their division, meaning Washington might once again have to execute a New York two-step to bring a World Series title to the nation’s capital.
The Senators, also known as the Nationals, entered the ’24 season as long-shots for the pennant, if anyone even considered them contenders at all. Coming off a losing 1923 campaign in which they finished 23.5 games out of first place, the Senators in 1924 turned to their 27-year-old second baseman, Bucky Harris, who had no previous managerial experience, as their player-manager. Owner Clark Griffith was ahead of his time in going with an untested manager, and sportswriters panned the unconventional hire as “Griffith’s folly.”
Read the full article here: http://www.hardballtimes.com/d.c.-vs.-n.y.-a-forgotten-rivalry-revived/
Originally published: July 1, 2015. Last Updated: July 1, 2015.