• The Continuing Attempt To Educate A Montreal Fan About DC Baseball History
On March 17, 1911, Boundary Field, or National Park, a completely wooden ballpark located on Georgia Avenue NW (between Georgia Ave and 5th Street, where Howard University Hospital now stands), then the home of the American League's Washington Nationals, burned to the ground, the result, history has it, of a, "...fire started by a plumber's blow lamp and a strong wind," as recounted in the history of Griffith Stadium on BallParkTours.com. The original structure was replaced by what would eventually, in 1920, be named Griffith Stadium, a steel and concrete ballpark which was known as National Park at first, but was later renamed after Washington Senators' owner Clark "The Old Fox" Griffith. Griffith Stadium was home to the Senators from 1911 til 1960 when the original team departed for Minnesota and became the Twins...
During the 49-year-stretch as the home of original Senators, Griffith Stadium hosted Game 7 of the 1924 World Series, the one and only World Series win in D.C. baseball history, as well as the 1925 and 1933 World Series, which the Sens lost to Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Giants, respectively, the 1937 and 1956 All-Star Games, and from time to time throughout the 1930's and '40's, the Negro League's Homestead Grays. The park would also host ceremonial first pitches thrown by Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. John F. Kennedy would throw out the final ceremonial first pitch in the park on Monday April 10, 1961 in the first game played by the second-Senators. The Sens, and the Washington Redskins who'd played in Griffith Stadium from 1937-1961, would both move to D.C. Stadium, which would eventually become known as RFK Stadium, in 1961.
Four years later, on January 26th, 1965, Griffith Park, one of over a hundred stadiums designed by Cleveland, Ohio-based Osborn Architects & Engineers, was demolished.
• Link: Doghouse - "CSI: Home Runs" - "Mickey Mantle hit a famously long HR at Griffith Stadium against the old Senators. How far did it really go? Link is to a PDF of a presentation showing how one researcher tried to figure it out. For those of you who don't like math, also fun pictures of Griffith Stadium and maps of the neighborhood at the time showing where the ball landed."