Griffith Stadium

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Griffith Stadium
Location	Washington, D.C.
Opened	July 24, 1911
Closed	September 21, 1961
Demolished	January 26, 1965
Owner	Washington Senators
Surface	Grass
Architect	Osborn Engineering
Former names	National Park (1911-1920)
Tenants	Washington Senators (I) (AL) (1911-1960) Washington Senators (II) (AL) (1961) Washington Redskins (NFL) (1937-1960) Georgetown Hoyas (NCAA) (1925-1950)
Capacity	32,000 (1921) 27,550 (1961)
Field dimensions	(Final) Left Field - 388 ft Left-Center - 360 ft Center Field - 421 ft Right-Center - 373 ft Right Field - 320 ft Backstop - 61 ft

Griffith Stadium was a sports stadium that stood in Washington, D.C. from 1911 to 1965, at the corner of Georgia Avenue and W Street, NW. An earlier wooden baseball park had stood on the site, built in 1891. It was called Boundary Field or National Park, as its occupants were then known primarily by the nickname "Nationals". This park was destroyed by a fire in March 1911, and replaced by a steel and concrete structure, also at first called National Park; it was renamed for Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith in 1920. The stadium was home to the American League Senators from 1911 through 1960, and to an expansion team of the same name for their first season in 1961. The venue hosted the 1937 and 1956 Major League Baseball All-Star Games. It served as a part-time home for the Negro League team called the Homestead Grays during the 1930s and 1940s. It was also home to the Washington Redskins of the National Football League for 24 seasons, from the time they transferred from Boston in 1937 through the 1960 season.

William Howard Taft began the tradition of presidents throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the baseball season at Griffith Stadium. Harry Truman, being ambidextrous, enjoyed showing off by throwing the baseball with either hand. According to some reports, he would alternate from year to year.

[edit] Field design

The stadium was laid out at a strange angle within its block in the Washington street grid. Thus, it was over 400 feet down the left field line (east) to the bleachers (though this distance was shortened in later years by the construction of an inner fence). The fence also took an unusual right-angled jut into right-center field where a large tree and several apartment buildings stood, due to the unwillingness of the owners of the tree and those nearby houses to sell to the Senators' owners during construction of the stadium. The right field fence angled away from the infield sharply which, in addition to a 30-foot fence (to block the view from surrounding buildings) about 8 feet inside the lower, outer wall, meant that relatively few home runs were hit at the stadium. Center field was east-southeast of home plate, which made for difficult visibility for the fielders in the late afternoon sun.

[edit] Notable sluggers

The distance fences were no problem for sluggers like Josh Gibson, Mickey Mantle and the Senators' own youngster Harmon Killebrew. Gibson is reported to have hit baseballs over the left field bleachers twice. Babe Ruth hit near-500 foot drives over the center and right-center walls on consecutive days in May, 1921. Mantle hit one that was so impressive that someone tried to determine its flight with some precision, thus popularizing the term "Tape Measure Home Run". It was alleged to be 565 feet, although it bounced off the top of the back wall of the bleachers, adding some distance to its flight path.

Aside from some championship seasons in the early 1920s and 1930s, the Senators teams that played at Griffith Stadium were legendarily bad. The hapless Washington team became the butt of a well-known Vaudeville joke, "First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League," a twist on the famous Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee eulogy of George Washington: "First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen". (A similar phrasing was once used for the St. Louis Browns: "First in shoes, first in booze, and last in the American League.")

Supposedly, Senators groundskeepers ensured that it was actually slightly downhill towards first base in order to give sluggish Senators players an extra step.

Only one Washington, DC public high school baseball player ever hit a home run over the 30-foot high "green monster-like" right field wall at Griffith Stadium - Bill Harrison of Coolidge High School in 1952.

The stadium was still called Griffith Stadium in 1961, even though team owner Calvin Griffith had moved the original Senators club to the "Twin Cities" area of Minneapolis-St. Paul (becoming the Minnesota Twins), to be replaced in Washington by a new expansion team, also called the Senators (now the Texas Rangers).

[edit] Final years

In the fall of 1961, the Redskins and Senators moved to the new D.C. Stadium (renamed R.F.K. Stadium in January 1969). Griffith Stadium was demolished in 1965, and the Howard University Hospital now occupies the site.

[edit] Washington Redskins

The stadium played host to the 1940 and 1942 NFL championship games. The 1940 game was the stunning 73-0 win by the Chicago Bears, the largest shutout game in the history of the National Football League. The 1942 game was essentially a rematch, and this time the undefeated Bears were upset by the 'Skins. According to Richard Whittingham's history of the Chicago Bears (ISBN 0671628852), 'Skins owner George Preston Marshall's pregame "pep talk" to his team consisted solely of Marshall writing "73-0" on the chalkboard.

During a December 7, 1941 Redskins game against the Philadelphia Eagles, an announcement came over the public-address speakers informing all generals and admirals to report to their duty stations. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was not explicitly announced over the PA system, leaving the thousands in attendance among the last Americans to learn of the attacks. The Redskins won that final game of the 1941 season by a score of 20–14, and finished with a record of 6–5, third in the NFL East.

[edit] Sources

• Green Cathedrals, by Phil Lowry.
• Lost Ballparks, by Lawrence Ritter.
• Williams, Paul K. Greater U Street. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2002.
• The Ballparks, by Bill Shannon & George Kalinsky, 1975. ISBN 0-8015-0490-2

Coordinates: 38°55′3″N, 77°1′13″W