[updated 10/18/19]
Washington, D.C. held its breath last night as it waited to see if the Nationals would make it a four-game sweep of the National League Pennant race.
The 7-4 victory for the Nationals over the St. Louis Cardinals clinched the league championship. Washingtonians historically enjoyed pennant glory three times with the Washington Senators (1924, 1925, and 1933) and nine times with the Homestead Grays (who went on to win the Negro World Series in 1943, 1944, and 1948, the last year of the separate competition). Let’s hope we’ll be dancing in the streets again like we did in 1924, when the Washington Senators won the World Series against the New York Giants.
You can see proof of that victory right in our acclaimed THE BIG PICTURE exhibit. A 40-by-9-foot panoramic photo shows the Washington Senators lined up in front of President Calvin Coolidge before the team’s 1924 World Series-winning contest.
Headlines from the Evening Star the next day captured the city’s unprecedented response: “Staid D.C. Loses Dignity in Wild Night’s Celebration.”
Was this victory by the same team we know today? Not surprising, D.C. has a complicated history with baseball.
From 1901 to 1971 Washington, D.C. was home to continuous major league baseball. During this time the team was the Nationals, then owners tried to change that to the Senators. For years both names applied until the Senators’ name prevailed.
But that all fell apart in 1972 when the Washington Senators moved to Dallas and became the Texas Rangers. The years 1972-2005 were dark times for Washington baseball fans. Then, in 2005, baseball returned.
The Washington Nationals played their first game on April 14, 2005, against the Arizona Diamondbacks, which they beat 5-3.
Go Nats!