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Of the many minor leagues that existed in professional baseball at the end of World War II, the Pacific Coast League (PCL) was at the pinnacle, the one with the best players, several fine stadiums, and robust attendance. In 1946, total attendance for the league was 4,068,372, a PCL record, dwarfing that of any other […]

President John F. Kennedy delivered the ceremonial first pitch in Washington’s Griffith Stadium on April 10, 1961, to inaugurate baseball’s new era. The debut of the new Washington Senators against the Chicago White Sox was the first game in the 10-team American League, marking the majors’ first expansion since 1901. The creation of the two […]

These lists were compiled by David Vincent from the SABR Home Run Log, with stats through the 2008 season. Click on a link below to view each list. Homers in Washington Ballparks Homers by Washington Teams Homers In Washington Ballparks   SWAMPOODLE GROUNDS First HR: George Wood, 29 April 1886, Phillies Last HR: Hardy Richardson, […]

As the American League’s pecking order of the 1950s was established, the Washington Senators (or Nationals) suffered greatly from the lack of a strong beak. Even with the 1960 season—the final campaign of the original franchise—tossed in for good measure, teams from the nation’s capital consistently played in a manner that inspired ridicule in an enduring […]

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Black Ball: A Negro Leagues Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2 (McFarland & Co., Fall 2008). Premise By the late 1930s, and particularly during the years of US involvement in World War II, segregation in sport and society was a topic of increasing public interest. Nationalism had at least […]

South Florida is notoriously hot in the summer, but conditions heated up another notch in 1952 when the Miami Sun Sox and the Miami Beach Flamingos fought it out in one of the great pennant races of minor league baseball. The 1952 dash for the pennant involved two colorful managers, the contentious Johnny “Pepper” Martin […]

“Josh missed immortality and a chance to endorse breakfast food by being born on the wrong side of the social structure.” — Jimmy Powers, New York Daily News, 19371 Josh Gibson was the most dominant power hitter in the Negro Leagues from 1930 through 1946. His production was so prodigious that his Hall of Fame […]

Speculating on ultimately unanswerable questions remains one of most fascinating aspects for those of us who study baseball history. For example, how might many of the all-time records differ if Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Oscar Charleston, and all of the other great Negro League stars had been eligible to play in white Organized Ball? How […]

  Zane Grey, the great Western novelist, played baseball in college plus several years in the minors but his younger brother, Romer, not only had a long minor league career but actually played one game in the majors. Somehow, Romer has been confused with another player and his name is not listed in any baseball […]

Clark Griffith, the son of former Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith and the great-nephew of former Washington Senators owner Clark C. Griffith, grew up in Washington. He worked for the Twins after graduating from Dartmouth. Griffith served as the Chairman of Major League Properties when it began its marketing/licensing program and was on the Player […]