History of Washington, D.C. professional baseball

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This article is about the history of professional baseball clubs in Washington, D.C. For other uses of Washington Nationals or Washington Senators, see Washington Nationals (disambiguation) or Washington Senators (disambiguation).

Washington, DC has been home to over a dozen baseball organizations since 1872 and is currently represented by the Washington Nationals.

The Early Years: 1872-1899

The first professional baseball teams and leagues formed in the late 19th century and several were based in Washington, DC. Many early teams used the names "Nationals" and "Senators" but were otherwise unrelated organizations.

"First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League": 1901-1971

1902 Logo

Washington was continuously home to a major league baseball team from 1901 until 1971. Two separate franchises alternated between the nicknames "Senators" and "Nationals" and sometimes used the names interchangeably.

  • The American League Washington Senators (1961-1971): This expansion team began play in Washington immediately following the departure of the former franchise. In 1972, this team moved to Dallas-Fort Worth and became the Texas Rangers.

Since the expansion franchise began play the year immediately after the original franchise's final year in Washington, and because they both used the same nickname, the teams are commonly confused or combined and photographs are often dated based on player uniforms. The original club used dark blue as its primary color, with a thick, sans-serif, red or white block "W" on it caps. The expansion club mainly used caps with a stylized cursive "W," first in blue with a red letter (1963–1967), then in red with a white letter (1968–1971), similar to current Washington Nationals. In 1961–1962, the expansion Senators wore dark blue caps with a sans-serif block "W" outlined in white, nearly identical to the caps of the original Senators save for a red button at the top of the cap. Varying shades of the Senators' red, white and blue colors are still used by their successor teams in Minnesota and Texas.[2]

Two other teams also competed in Washington during this time period.

The Return: 2005-Present

Major league baseball returned to Washington in 2005 after a 33-year absence.

President George W. Bush throws out the ceremonial first pitch when baseball returned in 2005.
  • The National League Washington Nationals (2005–Present): The Montreal Expos, under the ownership of major league baseball, were relocated to Washington and sold to a new ownership group.

The Nationals adopted similar colors to 1968-1972 Senators adding gold accents to a tilted version of the expansion Senators cursive "W" logo. In 2012, the Nationals were NL East Division Champions and brought postseason baseball to Washington D.C. for the first time in 79 years. In 2014, the Washington Nationals won their second NL East Division Championship in 3 years after defeating the Atlanta Braves 3-0 on September 16, 2014. In the NLDS of the same year, the Nationals would lose to the San Francisco Giants, who would go on to win the World Series.

References

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