Pitching Partners Pedro Ramos and Camilo Pascual. Pedro Ramos Guerra: Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1955-1961 and 1970. 117 wins and 54 saves in 15 MLB seasons. Camilo Alberto Pascual Lus: Pitcher for the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins in 1954-1966. Washington again in 1967-1969. 174 wins and 10 saves in 18 MLB seasons.
From Pascual's SABR biography: “First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League” — Charles Dryden’s memorable line was certainly one of the most fitting epigrams ever penned to capture just about any inept big-league baseball team from just about any epoch. Authors Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris went one hilarious step further when they chose to describe rail-thin Washington infielder Wayne Terwilliger as “the perfect utility man … he played with some of the worst Washington Senator teams of the early fifties, teams consisting of entire rosters of utility men.”
Of course the Boyd and Harris portrait (like the famed “first in peace” aphorism) was a shade over the top, a bit unfair, and chock full of delicious hyperbole. Yet the Washington Senators outfit of the post-World War II era was indeed one of the most lamentable also-ran ballclubs in the sport’s long history. The midcentury lackluster “Nats” of penurious owner Clark Griffith indeed perfectly fit the bill of loveable losers and altogether forgettable tail-enders from baseball’s reputed “Golden Era.”
The team Griffith assembled on a self-imposed shoestring budget during the decade immediately following the war was one that lent itself to such limiting stereotypes, never climbing out of the junior circuit second division between 1947 and 1960, peaking with four fifth-place finishes over that stretch, losing more than 90 games on nine occasions, and only once (1952) finishing fewer than 20 games off the winning pace. The ’50s-era Washington club seemingly drew attention for only a single day each year with its traditional role of hosting the American League season opener complete with the presidential first-ball tossing.
And no stereotype belittling the franchise was more exact and defining than the one involving the lengthy roster of Cuban recruits compiled through the scouting efforts of Papa Joe Cambria.3 Most were merely cup-of-coffee fill-ins who didn’t hang around very long; Oliverio Ortiz, Moín García, Angel Fleitas, and Armando Roche are four examples from the late 1940s who all lasted but part of a single season and none of whom appeared in more than 15 games. A few were curiosities like ancient rookie hurler Conrad Marrero (39 when he broke in in 1950) who was talented enough to make the 1951 American League All-Star squad and twice won in double figures. And a few more were destined to eventually blossom as league mainstays if not league stars once they shed their Washington uniforms and found more supportive surroundings. The latter group featured Camilo Pascual and Pedro Ramos, a pair of ill-starred hurlers who were among the best ever produced by their baseball-crazed homeland and yet were destined to ring up records for futility throughout their early American League years under Griffith’s club ownership.
The Washington ball club of the ’50s wasn’t exactly a true train wreck despite its string of basement finishes and overload of colorless diamond personalities. At least by decade’s end Griffith had assembled a handful of solid, capable big-leaguers. Outfielders Jim Lemon (who twice topped 30 homers, in 1959 and 1960, and led the league in triples in 1956) and Bob Allison (30 home runs and a league-best nine three-baggers in 1959) made some noise in the slugging department, even if they didn’t contribute much to pennant races.
And two players in particular stood among the most coveted by other owners around both leagues. It was widely reported in December 1959 that Cincinnati GM Gabe Paul had offered Griffith the then-startling sum of $1 million in cash ($500,000 each) for promising slugger Harmon Killebrew (league home-run pacesetter in his just-completed official rookie campaign) and crafty right-hander Camilo Pascual (fresh off his first season of double figures in the victory column). According to one source, Paul unequivocally stated that he viewed Pascual as the best pitcher in the majors, even if the then 25-year-old had posted but one winning mark in his half-dozen big-league campaigns. But Griffith apparently wasn’t cash-conscious enough to risk gutting his slowly improving franchise (whose brightening prospects would be confirmed by a jump in the standings from eighth to fifth the following summer) by accepting such a major financial windfall.
By the end of a barren 1950s decade that had produced only two non-losing seasons, Pascual was the best of the crew still residing in Griffith’s camp, although that fact didn’t become clear exactly overnight. From his rookie season of 1954 onward, Pascual was recognized around the junior circuit as a considerable natural talent who possessed one of the most devastating curveballs ever seen on the professional diamond. By only his third season (as a 22-year-old) he had worked his way into the starting rotation alongside Chuck Stobbs (15-15), Dean Stone (5-7) and Bob Wiesler (3-12). But the understaffed Senators (losers of 99 games) offered little support and Pascual, the team’s only right-handed starter, had little to show for his efforts beyond a league second-worst total of 18 losses.
Early on (before 1959), fellow Cuban Pedro Ramos seemed to have the upper hand and offer the greatest promise, winning in double figures on four occasions and outstripping Pascual in the victory column by a wide margin (between 1955 and 1958 Ramos went 43-55, Pascual (24-59). But the long haul would favor Pascual with his tricky curves, more than Ramos with his blazing heater. Ramos would enjoy a short dance with glory a decade later when he donned a Yankees jersey. But it was Pascual who would eventually blossom in new surroundings away from the nation’s capital into one of the most dominant hurlers in the junior circuit.
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1633348619
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1633348628