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

[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

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."

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by tbob

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]

Originally Posted by tbob

Congrats Hank! Very cool

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]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

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.

[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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!