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Long History With The District
By Jeremy Kahn May 9, 2005 |
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Even though the San Francisco Giants have yet to play a regular season game in Washington, D.C., there is a history with the Giants and the city. The Giants will not play in Washington until September 20-22, which is their final scheduled road trip of the season. With the move of the Montreal Expos to Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in our nation’s capitol, a team from the city of San Francisco will make their first-ever appearance in the stadium. If look back into the history books, you will see that the Giants have played in Washington; however it was at old Griffith Stadium and it was the 1920s and the 1930s. In 1924, the then Washington Senators, led by the “Big Train” Walter Johnson and Tom Zachary would defeat the New York Giants in a dramatic seven game series. The series ended when the Senators scored a run in the bottom of 12th inning in game seven to win the game by the final score of 4-3. It would take nine years, but the Giants would get their revenge, as they played in the World Series for the first time since that game seven loss to the Senators. The Giants, led by screwball pitching legend Carl Hubbell, would go on to defeat the Senators in five games. The teams may have only split in the World Series; however the Giants had some historically memorable players on those teams. The manager on the 1924 team was none other than John McGraw, who managed the Giants from 1902-1932. In his 29 full seasons as the manager, McGraw won an amazing 2,604 games, which includes 10 National League flags and three World Championships. After the 1932 season, McGraw would turn over the reins to Bill Terry, who led the Giants to a World Championship in his first season as the skipper of the team. Frankie Frisch was a member of the 1924 team along with Terry. So was Hall of Fame member Ross Youngs, who was inducted into the Cooperstown shrine in 1972. Besides Hubbell, the 1933 team included one of the greatest Giants of all, Mel Ott. While playing for the Giants from 1928-1943, Ott was an 11-time All Star and is third on the teams’ home run list with 511. He was the first National League player ever to exceed 500 home runs. Ott led the team in home runs every season from 1928-1945. Hubbell is of course known for striking out five consecutive Hall of Famers in the 1934 All-Star game; however Hubbell was also the National League MVP in both 1933 and 1936. He also holds the major league record for consecutive wins with 24, which he set over both the 1936 and 1937 seasons combined. In the last All-Star game played in Washington D.C. in 1969, the Most Valuable Player was none other than Willie McCovey. It was the second straight All Star game that a member of the San Francisco Giants had been named the game’s MVP, as one year earlier in the first All-Star ever played indoors, Willie Mays walked out of the Houston Astrodome with MVP trophy in his hands. |
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