Yates: Nats, D.C., and me: Why the World Series was worth the wait
From Clinton Yates at The Undefeated on November 1, 2019:
They say that baseball is as American as apple pie. So, it’s fitting enough that the last time Major League Baseball hosted a World Series in Washington, D.C., in 1933, that MLB was yet to be integrated and the Homestead Grays were, in fact, between leagues. The city was segregated and the ways of the world were just not the same. The National Press Club had yet to have been granted the first liquor license in the capital of the United States of America and the city’s future first black mayor was just 15 years old at the time and had yet to even move to town.
In the district, the hierarchy of sports when it came to fanhood was obvious — it was the NFL on down. But the stranglehold that pro football had on the city has loosened drastically since the Nationals came into existence, coincidentally starting in the very stadium that the NFL franchise ever had any real success.
The arrival of the Nats in the city wasn’t without controversy, but for an older generation of fans, like my own father, who saw not one but two baseball teams depart, the Nationals are a nod to time gone by.
Read the full article here: https://theundefeated.com/features/the-nationals-winning-the-world-series-was-worth-the-wait/
- Related link: Get your copy of SABR’s Bittersweet Goodbye: The Black Barons, the Grays, and the 1948 Negro League World Series
Originally published: November 1, 2019. Last Updated: November 1, 2019.