US National Archives: You Gotta Have Heart: A History of Washington Baseball

This post was originally posted at The New Democrat

A history of the Washington Senators can be summed up in one word, cheap. And perhaps throw in a names like Bob Short, Clark Griffith and Calvin Griffith to go along with cheap. Unlike the Washington Redskins in the NFL and the Baltimore Orioles just up the road, who are essentially also a local team, especially if you live in Maryland, who were known for winning and paying for the players to win. And having the right coaching staffs to make that happen, the Senators management just wanted to stay in business.

There are other factors as well. Griffith Stadium, even though it was a nice ballpark, was small and needed to be replaced in the early 1960s, which it was. But what the City of Washington should’ve done to allow for both the Senators and Redskins to be successful, was to build a football stadium for the Redskins and a baseball park for the Senators. And under the right management, both clubs would’ve been successful. The Redskins obviously had the right management obviously and the Senators never did.

The City of Washington finally figured out what they need to do make MLB baseball profitable in Washington. The right ballpark and the right management group to run the club. They have both now in Nationals Park, which is one of the best places to watch a baseball game in MLB and has a great fan atmosphere. And the Lerner Family that runs the club and now the Nationals are one of the better run clubs in MLB. Two division titles in the last three years and three straight winning seasons. And now the Nationals are a very good big market club, with a very solid fan base that is here to stay.

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Rusty Staub: Visits Montreal

Source:Rusty Staub– visits Montreal, Olympic, Canada.

“Baseball great Rusty Staub of the NY Mets and Montreal Expos talks about his life in Major League Baseball. Watch some great footage of Baseball Hall of Famer Rusty Staub.”

From Rusty Staub

One of the first mistakes that the Expos made was moving out of a baseball park in Jarry Park and moving into a football stadium in Montreal Olympic Stadium that is huge. People didn’t like watching baseball at Montreal Olympic and if the Expos needed a new baseball park, a football stadium that was fairly well-suited for football and soccer, was not the way to go.

What the Expose needed was to build a modern Jarry Park for the Expos, or perhaps a dome stadium where the roof opens. But design it for baseball, which is how the Montreal Olympic Stadium was supposed to be designed for in the beginning.

What the Expos got instead in the late 70s was a football stadium with a roof that didn’t open and a concrete hard astroturf field in Montreal Olympic Stadium, just when the Expos were starting to become pretty good. And the franchise probably would’ve been saved in Montreal with very good teams that Montreal and the Province of Quebec would’ve supported.

You can also see this post at The New Democrat, on Blogger.

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Bleacher Report: Matt Fitzgerald- ‘Athletics May Reportedly May Play at Giants AT&T Park if New Coliseum Deal Fails’

Source:Bleacher Report– two of the Oakland Athletics.

“Jean Quan, the Mayor of Oakland, confirmed that the Athletics will stay in the Oakland Coliseum through 2015…

From the Bleacher Report 

At risk of stating the obvious: (trust me, not the first time I’ve taken this risk) for the Oakland Athletics to remain in the City of Oakland, they’re going to have to get a new ballpark and perhaps renovations to the current Oakland Coliseum (whatever the hell the current name of choice is) in order to remain competitive and not end of the San Jose, Sacramento, Portland, or Las Vegas.

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ABC Sports: MLB 1982- MLB All Star Game

Source:Phenia Films– I guess this was a hot ticket in 1982.

“1982 All Star Game from Olympic Stadium in Montreal original NBC Broadcast includes pre game show from 7/13/82
This Represented the first All-Star game played outside the USA. Dave Concepcion drills a two run HR to lead the National League to another victory
Digitalized and remastered off original recorded VHS tape and a new audio dub.”

From Phenia Films

The first and last MLB all-star game at Montreal Olympic Stadium. Which is a good thing because this place was basically a football stadium and was simply huge for baseball with an awful concrete field where baseball probably should’ve never have been played.

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Baltimore Orioles: 1966 World Series Champions

Source:Outfield Fly Rule– the Orioles win the 1966 MLB World Series.

“Note: Leverage Index is an average of the leverage of situations, with 1 being average, below 1 being low-pressure, and above 1 being high-pressure.

Since beginning life as the Milwaukee Brewers in 1901, moving to St. Louis as the Browns a year later, and heading east to become the Baltimore Orioles in 1954, the franchise was just never all that competitive. In their first 65 years of existence, they played in one World Series, losing in 1944. They cracked a .600 winning percentage just once (1922), and in 65 years they managed a .500 record or better just 18 times. Between 1946 and 1959, the Browns/Orioles finished in the bottom 3 of the AL in 13 of the 14 years, with the high mark being a 5th place finish in 1957. Times were lean, to say the least. In 1959, the club hired Yankees farm system director Lee MacPhail to be the GM. Things quickly changed.

The tide began to turn in 1960, Brooks Robinson‘s first year as a productive starter. Over the first 6 years of the 60’s they’d be over .500 5 times, winning 90 or more games 3 times. They were on the cusp of something big. In 1965, the pitching staff was stellar, with 7 competent starting pitchers, but the offense was league-average. MacPhail decided to take a job with the league office as the Commissioner’s top aide, but before he resigned, he and successor Harry Dalton began talks to improve the offense. Several weeks after his departure, Dalton finished what they started, trading staff ace Milt Pappas, reliever Jack Baldschun (acquired 3 days earlier from the Phillies), and OF Dick Simpson (acquired one week earlier from the Angels) to Cincinnati for 30 year old former MVP Frank Robinson. With this trade, now considered one of the most lopsided in history, Baltimore went from flawed contender to a team ready to start a dynasty. Robinson won the Triple Crown in ’66, and 65 years of demons were ready to be exorcised.”

From Outfield Fly Rule

“This video is from the Memories on 33rd Street that was released via VHS by the Baltimore Orioles organization in 1992. The narrator of this video is Jon Miller.”

Source:Baltimore Orioles– welcome to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

From the Baltimore Orioles 

If you think about it, the 1966 MLB World Series is not that different from the 1969 MLB World Series. The main difference is that the Orioles got the key hits and runs in 1966 and didn’t get them in 1969 against the New York Mets. But all 4 games in 1966 between the Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers were very winnable for both clubs. It’s just that the Orioles got a little better pitching and key hits and runs when they needed them. The Dodgers didn’t because the Oriole had just a little better pitching in this series.

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NBC Sports: MLB 1981- NLDS Gm 1 Philadelphia Phillies @ Montreal Expos: Full Game

Source:NBC Sports– the 1981 NLDS at Montreal Olympic Stadium.

“1981 NLDS Game 1 – Phillies vs Expos”

From Classic Phillies TV

I wish MLB stuck with the 1981 playoff format with the divisional series and extra wildcards. Five-six teams in each league.

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JS Milla: MLB 1981- ‘The Montreal Expos Win A Playoff Series!’

Source:JS Milla– The Montreal Expos, winning their only playoff series ever.

Source:The Daily Times

“Let’s say it now: The Montreal Expos were winners. True, they never won a pennant, and they never got to play in the Serie Mondiale thanks to an errant fastball in 1981 and a called (player’s) strike in 1994. But the Expos won a heckuva lot of games in the 80s and even the 90s. And they even won a playoff series—the 1981 National League Division Series—thanks to some terrific pitching from Steve “Cy” Rogers, who beat Steve “Lefty” Carlton twice in one week, giving up one run in 17 2/3 innings of work.

If Major League Baseball had introduced the modern wildcard playoff format in the 1970s, you would have seen half-a-dozen additional playoff appearances from the Expos…and perhaps more celebrations like this one from October 11, 1981.”

From JS Milla

The Montreal Expos winning a playoff series in the expanded MLB playoff format in 1981. The Montreal Expos were winners in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, and to a certain extent in the early 1990s. And this guy is right that if the wildcard was around back then and you have 5 teams from each league make the playoffs every year. the Expos would’ve made several more playoff appearances in the 1980s.

But that could be said for a lot of other MLB franchises: the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, etc. So I don’t think that alone makes the Expos special.

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