Dubbed America's Game by Walt Whitman, baseball has been enjoyed in
our nation's capital by young boys playing street stickball and
Presidents throwing each season's inaugural pitch.
Just 13 years after Alexander Cartwright codified baseball's rules, the
Washington Nationals Baseball Club formed and in 1867 toured the country
spreading the baseball gospel. By 1901 the team became one of the first
eight major league teams in the newly formed American League. Players
such as Walter Johnson, probably the greatest pitcher of all time, and
other Senators under the stewardship of owner Clark Griffith
successfully led the club in 1924 to what many consider to be the most
exciting World Series in baseball history.
Later, the Homestead Grays played at Griffith Stadium and fielded a team
featuring legendary Negro League greats such as Josh Gibson and Buck
Leonard. The powerhouse Grays, during a ten-year span, won nine Negro
League World Championships, a record that may never be equaled in any
team sport again.
When the Grays disbanded, the original Senators left for Minnesota in
1960, and the expansion Senators of the 1960s relocated, the city was
left without a professional baseball team. While many feared that
baseball in D.C. was over, a spirit remained on the diamond and is still
felt today as children and adults team up in one way or another to play
the national pastime in the nation's capital. Hopes for a new
professional team linger, and those remembering baseball's heyday will
enjoy this extensive and unusual collection of historic photos that
celebrate a time when the crowds roared and Washingtonians believed that
the summer game would never end.
