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First in War, First in Peace, and Last in the AMERICAN League?

© Harold Friend

It is a statement whose meaning has changed as drastically as baseball itself. "First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League." Washington's first "major league" team was the Washington Nationals. The team, created in 1884, was a member of the now defunct Union Association. The next Washington baseball team, the Washington Statesmen, came into existence in 1891 as a member of the American Association and the following year became part of the National League as the Washington Senators. In 1899 they were unceremoniously dropped from the league, but a new upstart league began play in 1901 and Washington was one of its eight original teams.

The Senators fared badly throughout baseball's early history and the American League Senators did no better. They were owned by Ban Johnson, who was one of the forces behind the American League and he was more concerned with the league than with his team. Although Johnson was a team owner, he was also the American League president. Can anyone say Alan H. "Bud" Selig and the Milwaukee Brewers? I thought so.

In 1904 a group of Washington newspaper men purchased the Senators from Johnson. Obviously the journalists would have no problem with objectivity when reporting about their team. No conflict of interest. Nothing to worry about here. Just move along.

The Senators finished last in 1903 and again in 1904 so the obvious step was to change the team's name since getting different players was difficult and involved money. A contest was held and the owners decided the Senators would become the Nationals---again. There was only one problem. The fans continued to refer to the team as the Senators for the next fifty years.

The Washington Nationals or, if you prefer, the Washington Senators, had little success. The team won only three pennants, in 1924, 1925, and 1933, and its only World Championship was in 1924. The Nationals finished last ten times and either sixth or seventh on twenty three occasions in the eight team American League. The last time they were serious pennant contenders was 1945 and their last winning season was 1953.

This couldn't continue. The era of abandonment began. In 1953, the Boston Braves became the first team since 1903 to change its franchise to move to another city when owner Lou Perini took the Braves to Milwaukee, an action that opened the flood gates of teams leaving their cities. In 1954 the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and then, in one of the most rapacious, inexcusable acts in sports history, the Brooklyn Dodgers were terminated and owner Walter O'Malley was granted the Los Angeles franchise.

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