50 years ago today, the Washington Senators ...

[ValKehl]

... played its last game, before relocating to become the Texas Rangers. I would love to have attended this game, but with 6-week-old twins and two other kids under age five, there was no way for this to happen. Yesterday, the Washington Post had this interesting piece about this last game - I think folks will enjoy this read (hopefully, you won't encounter a paywall): https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...971-bob-short/

[butchie_t]

My sister and her boyfriend attended this game. A few years ago, for Christmas, she gave me the ticket stubs along with a Ted Williams “My Turn At Bat” paperback book that they were handing out at the game. Along with other game stubs of games she had gone to. One of them was also the 69 All-Star game ticket stub.

She taped the tickets to the back page of the book. But I’m good with that!

Needless to say, I love my sister!

I even found a tape recording of the game years ago and bought it. Them moving, even as bad as they were, sucked big time to a 12 year old version of me at that time. To this day, Bob Short can rot in hell as far as I am concerned.

[icollectDCsports]

Such a shame they were pulled out of DC.

[Peter_Spaeth]

My friends and I went. It was ugly. Someone hung up a "F--- Short" banner and it went downhill from there.

[GeoPoto]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

My friends and I went. It was ugly. Someone hung up a "F--- Short" banner and it went downhill from there.

Reminds me of the bicentennial Stones concert at RFK that had to be stopped because people were shooting off fire works in the crowd. Back then we were allowed to carry coolers full of beer into the stadium -- but we were so much older then, we are younger than that now.

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

Reminds me of the bicentennial Stones concert at RFK that had to be stopped because people were shooting off fire works in the crowd. Back then we were allowed to carry coolers full of beer into the stadium -- but we were so much older then, we are younger than that now.

Nice Bob Dylan / Byrds refernce.

[GeoPoto]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

... played its last game, before relocating to become the Texas Rangers. I would love to have attended this game, but with 6-week-old twins and two other kids under age five, there was no way for this to happen. Yesterday, the Washington Post had this interesting piece about this last game - I think folks will enjoy this read (hopefully, you won't encounter a paywall): https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...971-bob-short/

I left for college in late August, so the final game was not an option for me. But, in the late 60's, the Senators had areas in RFK designated as "Fan Club" seats for the more popular players. So a fan could sit in the Frank Howard fan club area, Mike Epstein fan club area etc. Perhaps the tickets cost a little more or the Senators performances were poor, but for whatever reason, somebody at my high school got the idea to create our own "fan club". So they picked the player who had the worst BA with qualifying plate appearances, which was Joe Rudi, then a young player for Oakland, who visited for 9 games a season. Rudi quickly became an all-star player and the "Joe Rudi fan club", Washington chapter, would show up when Oakland was in town. At least that's the way I remember it. It was our way of coping with the Senators chronic fecklessness.

[mrreality68]

WOW
Only know it threw the history books.
Only a toddler then,
Thanks for sharing and an interesting read.

https://www.yurasko.net/wfy/2011/09/...inal-game.html

This LINK is the Radio Broadcast of the game. Interesting to listen at the 2:43 mark about the build up and the people on the field

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

https://www.yurasko.net/wfy/2011/09/...inal-game.html
This LINK is the Radio Broadcast of the game. Interesting to listen at the 2:43 mark about the build up and the people on the field

Thanks for posting this, Jeff, it's amazing to listen to. I got to be great friends with the broadcaster, Ron Menchine, and it was always a hoot to listen to his opinion of Bob Short and MLB for letting him get away with it. Ron was a terrific talent, by the way, an old-school sports voice, who did Maryland and Navy football games among other things in his career, not to mention a speaking part in the movie, "All The President's Men." My heart had already been broken when the original Nats franchise left after the 1960 season, only to become the winningest team in the A.L. for the decade of the 1960s in Minnesota, so I could give a shit by the time the expansion team left.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Even if it came off a batting practice pitch, the Frank Howard home run was a great moment. Other than a few brief flashes from Mike Epstein and some great fielding by Ed Brinkman, he was the only good thing about the Senators teams from the late 60s that I grew up with.

[samosa4u]

All of this happened way before my time, and so I don't know much about it, but I just read now that Short was the one who purchased the Minneapolis Lakers and moved them to LA. We all know that LA Lakers went on to become the most popular sports franchise on the planet.

[butchie_t]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Even if it came off a batting practice pitch, the Frank Howard home run was a great moment. Other than a few brief flashes from Mike Epstein and some great fielding by Ed Brinkman, he was the only good thing about the Senators teams from the late 60s that I grew up with.

I also liked Tim Cullen, Ed Stroud and Paul Casanova. We never got to see Toby Harrah, Dave Nelson, and others mature as they were all shipped off to the foreign country of Texas. Just another reason to hate Texas. I had one already.....(HTTR) and the move just added fuel to that fire.

Frank Howard was/is/and always will be my favorite player of all time. Ken McMullen was pretty good at 3B. Too good as he was traded for Aurelio Rodriguez. Blecch.... At least his 69 Topps card is memorable. Chortle.....

And lets not forget Curt Flood and Denny McLain and their short stints with the Nats too! "The days of wine and roses"..... What ex Senator said that later on in life?

[GeoPoto]

Bobby D. was the key add to get the Championship. E could carry them into the 4th quarter, but he would disappear at crunch time and the last 10 minutes would belong to Dandrdge.

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[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

Bobby D. was the key add to get the Championship. E could carry them into the 4th quarter, but he would disappear at crunch time and the last 10 minutes would belong to Dandrdge.

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I would spin that to say E concentrated on defense and rebounding down the stretch lol, but yeah, a typical E game was 10 in the 1st, 8 in the 2nd, 6 in the 3rd and 0-2 in the 4th.

Freddie Brown on Seattle was also a great 4th quarter player. It was an interesting series because neither Seattle nor Washington was supposed to be anywhere near the finals, Portland had dominated the West and Philly the East.

[icollectDCsports]

Bullets Fever by Nils Lofgren:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLA_FH3LIf0

[Jewish-collector]

I was a huge Baltimore Bullets fan. I'm still upset Abe Pollin moved the team to DC.

[butchie_t]

Originally Posted by icollectDCsports

Bullets Fever by Nils Lofgren:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLA_FH3LIf0

hahahahah thanks for the flashback. I remember the "catch bullet fever" phrase but had long forgotten the song. So cool!

[scotgreb]

https://dcbaseballhistory.com/2013/0...ries-part-one/

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