On May 10, 2008, at Nationals Park, a scoring quirk let Nationals’ reliever Joel Hanrahan do what no other pitcher in the history of the American and National leagues has ever done: He was charged with allowing four inherited runners to score. It's a record that might some day be equaled, but it can't be … Continue reading 2008: Nats’ reliever sets record by letting 4 inherited runners score →

Mark Zuckerman has been covering the Nationals since the team came into existence in 2005, first for the Washington Times, then when that paper dropped sports, briefly on his own expense – an amazing and costly level of dedication -- before being hired by CSN and then MASN, where he remains and has become a … Continue reading Mark Zuckerman, an heir to Povich, Addie and Boswell in D.C. baseball coverage →

Juan Soto reportedly turned down an offer of $440 million over 15 years from the Washington Nationals in the summer of 2022. He’s represented by the super-agent Scott Boros, who had worked out deals with Washington in the past for free agents as high-profile as Max Scherzer. With uncertainty about the MASN situation and the … Continue reading Two stops later, Soto makes clear he wanted to stay in D.C. →

In the first year in Washington, the Nationals surprisingly were leading the National League East half way through the season. After winning 24 one-run games before the All-Star break, thanks in large part to the work of their All-Star closer, Chad Cordero, the Nats had suddenly experienced a reversal of fortune. In Milwaukee on July … Continue reading July 15, 2005: Nationals lose on a walk-off balk →

In its first issue of 2024, the venerable Baseball Digest chose Stephen Strasburg’s 2010 debut, at Nationals Park against Pittsburgh, as the greatest first-game performance in MLB history. Clearly, because of the hype surrounding Strasburg’s selection as the first player chosen in the 2009 draft, and his short but dominant two stops in the minors, … Continue reading June 8: 2010: Was Strasburg’s debut the greatest ever? →

Two men, one an heir and the other an unscrupulous financier, were responsible for Washington losing its two American League baseball teams, 11 years apart. The first was Calvin Griffith. He did what his uncle, Clark Griffith, never considered: moving the original Washington A.L. team to Minnesota. The District then was stuck with an expansion … Continue reading Who moved the Senators? →

Anthony Rendon began the afternoon of April 30, 2017, with five runs batted in for the month and had yet to homer in 22 games. He was hitting .226. To call it a slow start would be an understatement for the Nationals’ third baseman, who already had a Silver-Slugger season for Washington in 2014. Noah … Continue reading April 30, 2017: Rendon’s 10-RBI, 3-homer, game →

Britain’s King Charles III turned 75 in November 2023, after waiting nearly 74 of those years to take the throne.  He and I have a couple of things in common. We each saw the Washington Senators play at D.C.’s Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, and we were born days apart on the same island nation. … Continue reading King Charles was introduced to baseball at RFK →

 Before the New York Highlanders signed him in 1907, catcher Branch Rickey told manager Clark Griffith that a sore arm kept him from throwing well. Griffith, however, was desperate for a backup catcher. On June 28, Griffith started Rickey behind the plate against the last-place Washington Nationals in a game at Hilltop Field in New … Continue reading June 28, 1907: Nats steal 13 bases off catcher Branch Rickey →

Hastily assembled in December 1960, the expansion Senators lost 100 games four seasons in a row. Manager Gil Hodges, hired in May 1963, pushed for a trade of the Senators’s best pitcher, lefty Claude Osteen, to the Dodgers, for several unproven players and one slugging outfielder, 6-foot-7 Frank Howard.  "Hondo," the beloved hero of so … Continue reading The best cards of the only expansion Nat that fans remember →

Shortstop Cecil Travis had a good enough career with the Senators that many argue he belongs in the Hall of Fame. Were it not for his nearly four years in the Army and a foot injury during World War II's Battle of the Bulge, it’s quite possible he’d be a Hall of Famer. As it … Continue reading May 16, 1933: a record debut for Cecil Travis →

After Washington infielder "Pete" Runnels slumped to .230 in 1957, Calvin Griffith foolishly traded him to the Boston Red Sox. By mid-July in 1958, Runnels was hovering around .330 and leading the league in hitting, thanks in part to the tutelage of Ted Williams. The Splendid Splinter was coming off a season in which he … Continue reading In 1958 at Griffith Stadium, Ted Williams edged Pete Runnels for sixth batting title →

In his fourth big-league game and third start after his 2023 call-up, center fielder Jacob Young was a busy man against the home-standing Toronto Blue Jays. In the seventh, he laid down a perfect bunt and beat it out without throw for his first hit in the majors. Noted for his speed, the Nationals 2022 … Continue reading August 29, 2023: Rookie Jacob Young achieves an unusual Nationals’ first →

While it doesn’t rank near the game’s well-known achievements, being the last player to wear the uniform of a relocated (and sometimes renamed) team has given 11 men since 1953 a certain claim to fame. A single at-bat at the end of the1956 season, for example, made Bob Aspromonte the last man to have played … Continue reading A near claim to fame for Sievers and Roseboro →