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11/17/07 This Day in Washington Baseball History...

The Continuing Attempt To Educate A Montreal Fan About DC Baseball History...

     On November 17, 1960, Washington, DC baseball fans' prayers were answered when the city was awarded it's second Senators team as Major League Baseball announced that, "A native of Washington and head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Elvin Quesada was awarded the expansion Washington Senators," according to the DC baseball historians at...

http://www.stagefronttickets.com/MLB/dc-baseball-highlights.html

     The original Senators had been moved to Minnesota by owner Calvin Griffith, the son of the late Clark "The Old Fox" Griffith, who had inherited the team upon his father's demise, and been granted permission to relocate the franchise after just six years of running the team his father had purchased thirty-five years earlier so that struggling club would remain in DC.

     According to the Texas Rangers wikipedia.org profile, which recounts the franchise's history in DC, "FAA administrator Elwood Richard Quesada led the 10 man group that bought the Washington franchise," in 1961, but, "...Quesada knew very little about baseball," and two years later he sold his stake in the franchise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Rangers_(baseball)

     Ten years and two changes of ownership later, Trucking Executive Robert Earle "Bob" Short sold out the District again, moving DC's second Senators franchise to Texas, where the Senators became the Rangers they remain to this day. It would take thirty-three years before baseball would return to Washington in 2005 when the Expos lost their own franchise to the city that had twice before been similarly spurned.      

     *The folks over at another Washington Nationals blog "Beltway Boys" have a great post about the Quesada and Short-owned Senators franchise that ends with about as harsh a sentiment as I would like to express to the former Expos owners if ever given the opportunity...*

(http://tbwb.blogspot.com/2007/10/bob-short-finished-what-others-started.html#links)...