One of our own throwing out first pitch at Nats game tonight!

[Danny Smith]

The Nats are honoring the 1924 World Series Champion Team with an awesome turn back the clock night in DC vs. the Giants.

Hank Thomas (Walter Johnson's grandson and Net54er) is throwing out the first pitch.

Check out the Wapo article below about the first pitch and all the great thing the Nats are doing for the game tonight.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/post/nats-will-use-1924-baseball-before-turn-back-the-clock-night/2012/07/05/gJQAjNlePW_blog.html

Go Nats!

Danny

[kcohen]

Forget the curve ball, Hank. Throw the heater.

[bbcard1]

Just don't bounce it!

[Leon]

Way to go Hank.

[wonkaticket]

Very cool, one of the coolest things I have read on this board!

I'm with Ken on this, Hank...bring the heat you have a family name to uphold. :)

Cheers,

John

[Danny Smith]

The game is also on the MLB network channel tonight at 7 est for those interested.

Danny

[Jason]

Go Nats!

[Buythatcard]

Good Luck Hank. Found this picture of Hank from 2007. He is a pro at this.

[glchen]

Nice picture. I can see some resemblance to Wojo.

[yanksfan09]

Very cool, Wish I was there!

[Ladder7]

Nice picture. I can see some resemblance to Wojo.

We may have an ear match... Let 'er rip little train!

[Buythatcard]

You can tell that they are related.

[VintageBall]

A fine choice by the Nats and a fine man...

Robert S

[wonkaticket]

A second time Hank? Wow I guess it would be easier to just sign you at this point. :)

[Jay Wolt]

Hank, congrats!
Now don't jinx the Nats, they are in rarefied air in 1st place:)

[Bosox Blair]

Dust em inside Hank! :D

Cheers,
Blair

[Danny Smith]

Nats win! Sweep of the giants. What a season so far!!

[ValKehl]

Nice picture. I can see some resemblance to Wojo.

I agree with this regarding Hank's pitching form, but unfortunately, I don't see where Hank inherited any of his grandpa's good looks!! :D

Seriously, I wish I had known, and I wish I had been there! Truth be told, the way I feel about Hank is, they don't come any nicer, and this is something that I suspect he did inherit from his grandpa.

The Nats won in the 9th, thanks to a bad-throw gift from the Giants, as the game shudda gone into extra innings. Lady luck often seems to smile on a team on the roll. World Series, here we come - hey, I've dreaming for a Washington team to achieve this even since Dad took me to old Griffith Stadium back in the 1950s!!

Hank, do you realize that the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Senators' (only) Championship is only a dozen years away? Hopefully, the Nats will do some sort of a meaningful remembrance of this achievement during the 2024 season, and they should contract with you to arrange this.

BTW, have you ever noticed the list of names of the members of the DC sports hall of fame (or some words to this effect) that appears, as I recall, in the area beyond the left field seats? What mystifies me re this listing is the glaring omission of "Sam" Rice, who IMHO, had the greatest career with the Senators of any ballplayer not named Walter Johnson.

Best always,
Val

[Rickyy]

Very Cool. I just wished he could have pitched for Casilla in the 9th... :p

Ricky Y

[kcohen]

We long suffering Washington fans have to pinch ourselves to make sure we're not dreaming. A win is a win, but how great would it have been on the final play had Laroche hit a grounder to 3rd with the ball taking a bad hop over Sandoval's head.

[npa589]

Ease up on the "long suffering" part. There are Cubs fans on this board... :o

[kcohen]

Ease up on the "long suffering" part. There are Cubs fans on this board... :o

Noted. But at least you didn't have to endure 35 years without a team.

[danmckee]

Hank did this 2 years ago I believe and he absolutely grooved a strike! hank is tall and lanky and built for pitching!

I hope the Orioles see him tonight and offer him a contract!

You go Hank! Make grandpappy proud!!!!!!!!

dan

[tbob]

Congrats Hank! Very cool :D

I hate to dog you Nationals fans but the Senators teams from the early 1900s to 1960 are the direct descendants of the Minnesota Twins, not the Washington Nationals. The Senators moved to Bloomington, Minnesota in 1961. Although the Twins have been extremely slow to embrace their former Senator players, in the last few years there has been an effort to include them in their history. Hank should have been throwing the ball from the mound in Target Field. The last two years' Twins team are very reminiscent of their predecessors in Washington, "...and last in the American League." :rolleyes:

[Hankphenom]

I did come with the high heat, and almost knocked Gio Gonzalez off his feet. Of course, I was throwing at him from 20 feet! I'm sure he thought this old geezer was going to loop one, but as many have pointed out, there's a family tradition to uphold. Also, I didn't want to take any chance that Phil Wood's beautiful 1924 World Series baseball would take a bounce on the red clay Gonzalez was standing on. This was actually my fourth "first pitch," together with Opening Day 2007, August 2, 2007 at RFK--Walter's 100th anniversary of his first game--and June 2006 at Fenway, where my old friend Bob Wood, Smokey Joe Wood's son and longtime memorabilia dealer at Valley Forge and Fort Washington, taught me a valuable lesson. As we were being escorted to the mound by the ball girls, Bob pulls me close and whispers "Don't let 'em take us all the way, Hank, stop when I stop." So when Bob stopped at the edge of the mound, I stopped, and the girls had to stop, too. Looking in to the plate, I immediately realized the wisdom of his approach. Bob, who I'm sure had done this many times, had cut ten feet off our throw and we were still on flat ground. Nice. Anyway, last night was fabulous fun. The 1924 uniforms looked fantastic, so classy, and because the only "entertainment" during the game was 1920s organ songs, it was discovered to everybody's amazement that you can easily fill the time between innings talking baseball or about the heat, and that you don't need rock music blaring or constant stupid contests, etc. And the crowd got no--and never needed any-- prompting whatsoever to express its enthusiasm for their team. Gosh, all you need, it turns out, is A BASEBALL GAME going on. And speaking of the Nationals, for those who don't know it yet, this is one terrific and very exciting ball club, and our highest paid player (Jason Werth) and lights out young closer (Drew Storen) are both about to come off the DL for the second half. Go Nats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gary Dunaier]

I hate to dog you Nationals fans but the Senators teams from the early 1900s to 1960 are the direct descendants of the Minnesota Twins, not the Washington Nationals. The Senators moved to Bloomington, Minnesota in 1961.

Nit picking department: the Washington Senators are the ancestors, not the descendants, of the Minnesota Twins. The Twins are the ones who are the descendants, just as the present Washington Nationals are the descendants of the Montreal Expos.

[kcohen]

Congrats Hank! Very cool :D

I hate to dog you Nationals fans but the Senators teams from the early 1900s to 1960 are the direct descendants of the Minnesota Twins, not the Washington Nationals.

Bob -

You are of course correct. I remember very well as a kid when Calvin Griffith moved the team to the Twin Cities area. He had been flirting with Los Angeles before that. I wonder what turns history would have taken had he been able to close the deal with LA.

Anyway, they can heist our team but not our heritage and history. The legacy of Walter Johnson et al belongs no more in Minnesota than does Rusty Staub's belong in DC or George Sisler's in Baltimore.

As for Calvin Griffith, to paraphrase what someone once said about Walter O'Malley for having moved the Dodgers - If I had Hitler, Stalin, and Griffith in a room and I had a gun with only two bullets, I'd shoot Griffith twice.

[Hankphenom]

The whole "franchise" thing has just got to go. The history stays with the city. When a team starts in a new location, it starts fresh. When a team starts in a location that has a MLB history, that's its history. As far as I know, Walter Johnson was never in Minnesota--so I'm sure he'd be quite surprised that they claim him. Washington MLB history started in 1886, stopped in 1889, started in 1891, stopped in 1899, started in 1901, stopped in 1971, started in 2005...you get the idea. I don't care where these teams came from, and I don't care where they went. When they were here, they were our team, that's all. Simple as that.

[Jay Wolt]

Washington MLB history started in 1886, stopped in 1889, started in 1891, stopped in 1899, started in 1901, stopped in 1971, started in 2005...you get the idea.

Here's a couple of 1887 Buchners. The Washington team then, was called the "Nationals" and was in the National League.
The Senators team name came a few years later in 1901 in the American League for their inaugural season.

http://www.qualitycards.com/pictures/8156269004.jpg
http://www.qualitycards.com/pictures/1274800004.jpg

[ValKehl]

We long suffering Washington fans have to pinch ourselves to make sure we're not dreaming. A win is a win, but how great would it have been on the final play had Laroche hit a grounder to 3rd with the ball taking a bad hop over Sandoval's head.

If anyone is wondering what Ken meant by this comment, the Senators were trailing the NY Giants 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning of the 7th game of the 1924 World Series when Bucky Harris hit a routine ground ball to third which hit a pebble and took a bad hop over Giants third baseman Freddie Lindstrom. Two runners scored on the play, tying the score at three. Walter Johnson then came in to pitch the ninth, and held the Giants scoreless into extra innings. With the score still 3–3, Washington came up in the bottom of the twelfth. With one out, and runners on first and second, Earl McNeely (whom the Senators had acquired from Sacramento in early August) hit another grounder at Lindstrom, and again the ball took a bad hop, scoring Muddy Ruel with the Series-winning run, making Johnson the winning pitcher and giving Washington its only W.S. Championship, that is, until 2012 (come October, the Nationals will be good enough to beat the Yankees!).
Val

[danmckee]

Hank! Is that Blair Jett next to you in the stands in the red shirt????? :D

[Hankphenom]

Hank! Is that Blair Jett next to you in the stands in the red shirt????? :D

If it was, I guess he's still not talking to me!

[Buythatcard]

Wow, I thought this thread was to say how proud we were that one of our own threw out the first pitch. But, for some reason it turned to a discussion on franchises. :eek:

[Hankphenom]

Wow, I thought this thread was to say how proud we were that one of our own threw out the first pitch. But, for some reason it turned to a discussion on franchises. :eek:

Sorry about that, Howard. It's a pet peeve of mine--I think you'd have to be a Washingtonian to really appreciate how much.

[kcohen]

Mine too. Saying Walter Johnson's legacy has anything remotely to do with Minnesota is like saying Johnny Unitas' belongs in Indianapolis. I'm certain that if you asked Marchetti, Donovan, Berry or any of the other old Colts, they'd scoff at the notion.

[mrvster]

Congrats.....these are the threads i love to read:)


All the best

Johnny