Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Thanks for the comment. I'm not sure what Deveaux is basing his use of "truly" on, but he continues "Fans and reporters alike, in Washington and elsewhere, continued to call the team the Senators and to nickname the team the Nats. It would be 50 years, however, before 'Senators' would become the official team name".

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[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

Thanks for the comment. I'm not sure what Deveaux is basing his use of "truly" on, but he continues "Fans and reporters alike, in Washington and elsewhere, continued to call the team the Senators and to nickname the team the Nats. It would be 50 years, however, before 'Senators' would become the official team name".

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Just to point out, Nats is part of SeNATors too, so it might be considered a duo use nickname.

Brian

[GeoPoto]

Player #28A: Clark C. "The Old Fox" Griffith. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1912-1914. Debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1891. 237 wins and 8 saves in 20 MLB seasons. Was 1898 MLB ERA leader. Managed the Chicago White Stockings (1901-1902), the New York Highlanders (1903-1908), the Cincinnati Reds (1909-1911), and the Washington Senators (1912-1920). Was principal owner of the Washington Senators from 1920 until his death in 1955. In 1946, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame.

Griff's SABR biography picks up his career with the New York Highlanders: In 1903, Griffith was named manager of the NY AL team that replaced Baltimore. 1906 found him still managing the Highlanders. We pick up his SABR biography: In 1904, mainly through the machinations of Ban Johnson, New York was fortified by the additions of Jack Powell and John Anderson, and the pick-up of Smiling Al Orth in July helped to solidify the team in its run for the pennant. On the season’s final day, however, a wild pitch by Jack Chesbro denied the Highlanders a championship. It was the closest Griff would come to a flag in New York.

The club was up and down in the standings over the next several seasons, sagging to sixth place in 1905, finishing second in 1906 and falling back again to fifth in 1907. In June 1908, as the team was beset with injuries and spiraling downward, losing 12 of 13 games, Clark announced his resignation. He blamed bad luck which followed the club, intimating that perhaps it was he, himself, who was the hoodoo. A disheartened Griffith stated, “It [is] simply useless for me to continue…I have tried everything, but it [is] fighting against fate.”

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[GeoPoto]

Player #29: Charles T. "Charlie" Hickman. Utility player with the Washington Senators in 1905-1907. 1,176 hits and 59 home runs in 12 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Boston Beaneaters in 1897-1899. His 1902 season was split between the Boston Americans and the Cleveland Bronchos but was his most productive as he posted a .387 OBP with 110 RBIs in 564 plate appearances. His final season was 1908 with the Cleveland Naps.

Hickman's SABR biography summarizes his time in Washington: After struggling at the plate and in the field for Detroit in 1905, and again tangling with Armour (now managing the Tigers), he was sold to Washington, where he remained for one complete season and parts of two others. He was the team’s leading hitter, but his defensive woes continued. On September 29, 1905, Hickman entered the record books again when he had a five-error game at second base. Though still an effective hitter who batted .284 with nine home runs for the Senators in 1906, Hickman’s inability to play defense limited his value. During spring training in 1907, Hickman suffered a knee injury that would hamper him through the rest of the season (and signal the end of his career).

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[GeoPoto]

Player #30: Case L. "Casey" Patten. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1901-1908. 101 wins and 4 saves in 8 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of 3.36. His best season was 1906 with Washington as he posted a 19-16 record with a 2.17 ERA in 282.2 innings pitched. He finished his career in 1908 with the Boston Red Sox.

Patten's SABR biography lays out his time in Washington: Patten debuted with Manning’s Senators on May 4, 1901, pitching in relief of Win Mercer, who was up against Cy Young and some hot Boston batters. (James H. Manning owned the Kansas City Blues and went on to become one of the incorporators of the Washington Senators. A good part of the Washington team, including Patten, was built from Manning's Kansas City club.) Mercer let in seven runs in the first four innings, and Patten got the call. He struck out two and walked three and let in three more runs. It was a lopsided 10-2 win for Jimmy Collins and the Bostons.

(Despite that introduction,) Patten (had) a pretty good year on the mound. Though he was pitching for a sixth-place team which wound up with a 61-72 record, Patten was 18-10 with a 3.93 earned run average, the best pitcher on the staff. If not his best year, it was one of his two best. “I never saw a pitcher with a better curve,” said Kid Gleason at year’s end. (Washington Post, September 27, 1901.) Patten was often superb with the spitball. Over seven seasons with Washington, Patten averaged over 14 wins a year (though, it must be said, more than 17 losses). He played with Washington throughout his entire major-league career save for one game that he pitched for the Boston Red Sox in 1908.

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[GeoPoto]

Player #31: Garland "Jake" Stahl. First baseman with the Washington Senators in 1904-1906 and manager 1905-1906. 894 hits and 31 home runs in 9 MLB seasons. 1912 World Series champion. 1910 AL HR leader. He debuted with the Boston Americans in 1903. His most productive season may have been 1910 with the Boston Red Sox as he posted a .334 OBP with 77 RBIs in 598 plate appearances. His last days as a player were with Boston in 1908-1910 and 1912-1913. He also managed Boston in 1912-1913.

Stahl's SABR biography covers his rise and fall as Washington's manager: During the winter of 1903-04, Boston shipped Jake to the floundering Washington franchise. Johnson (Ban Johnson was grateful for Stahl’s role in Boston’s successful 1903 season -- Boston’s World Series victory ensured the long-term viability of his new American League) was in charge of the team until suitable owners could be found and (he) converted Jake into a first baseman. He appeared in 142 games and finished the year with a .262 batting average, three home runs, and 50 RBIs. Even by Deadfall Era standards, these numbers were not exceptional, yet Stahl led the woeful (38-113) Nationals in all three categories.

In 1905, Johnson promoted Jake to manager. Having just turned 26 years old the day before the season began, he became the youngest player-manager in American League history. Employing the inclusive management style he used in college, Jake quickly won the support of the team’s veteran players. Coupled with a focused disciplinary approach emphasizing direct out-of-public-view communication with offenders, punctuated by demonstrations of potential physical force, Jake led the 1905 squad to 64-87 record.

For a short time early in the season, Jake even had the team in first place. When the team returned from a successful road trip, Washington gave the team a rousing parade and celebratory dinner. More importantly, Johnson found new owners for the shaky Washington franchise. Stahl had become, in the words of one observer, “popular with the players, and so well liked by the club owners that it has been officially announced that he can retain his present berth until he voluntarily resigns.”

In the offseason, Jake married his college sweetheart, the daughter of highly successful businessman Henry Weston Mahan. In 1906, however, things fell apart for Jake and the Nationals. Popular shortstop Joe Cassidy unexpectedly died of typhus at the beginning of the season and the team fell into a tailspin, finishing 55-95. The frustrated Washington owners replaced Jake as their manager during the 1906-1907 offseason.

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[GeoPoto]

Player #32: J. William "Wee Willie" Sudhoff. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1906. 102 wins and 3 saves in 10 MLB seasons. He debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1897-1898. His best season was 1903 with the St. Louis Browns as he posted a 21-15 record with a 2.27 ERA in 293.2 innings pitched.

Sudhoff's SABR biography covers his time in Washington: Blond-headed Wee Willie Sudhoff, although short in stature, was a solid, if mostly unspectacular, pitcher who spent all or parts of 10 seasons in the major leagues. He was the first Missouri-born player to appear for both the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals and the American League’s St. Louis Browns. The bulk of his career was spent on those two teams, but he also played for the woeful 1899 Cleveland Spiders and the 1906 Washington Senators. The diminutive right-hander relied primarily on curves and change of speed as he didn’t have particularly great pace on his fastball.

During the (1905-06) American League winter meetings, he was traded to the Washington Senators for left-handed starter Beany Jacobson. Sudhoff felt he still had something left. In an interview with the Post-Dispatch he confidently stated, “Why should I get out of the game so long as the public and the managers will stand for me? I’m still a young fellow.” The Washington Post was not as optimistic: “The Washington baseball club has traded Pitcher Jacobson for Pitcher Sudhoff, of the St. Louis Browns. Jacobson was a failure last season. Sudhoff was a great pitcher in his day but is believed to be going back.”

The Washington paper proved to be correct. While Jacobson was average in a tail-end role (he pitched 155 innings, fifth of the six pitchers on the team), Sudhoff had nothing left. The sore-armed twirler started five games and relieved in four others but managed a total of just 19⅔ innings with a bloated 9.15 ERA. That was a far cry from the pitcher who completed 199 of his 239 major-league starts.

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