In the hallway of Howard University's hospital lies a marker in the shape of a home plate with a large picture of a ballpark from yesteryear. It commemorates much more than Griffith Stadium, it remembers a simpler time when big paydays didn't rule the airwaves and when the sports teams of Washington D.C. sometimes dominated the competition while hunting for that ever elusive title.
Griffith Stadium
On March 17, 1911, a fire ripped through Washington D.C.'s Boundary Field. the structure was a complete loss and rendered its tenants, the Washington Senators, homeless. Seeing no other option, their manager/owner, Clark Griffith, hired F.J. Osborn Architecture and Engineering to build a new stadium on the same site between 5th and 7th streets.
As a pioneer in stadium construction, Osborn Engineering was all the rage back in the day, having recently finished Pittsburgh's Forbes Field with an awe-inspiring blend of concrete and steel. Naturally, Major League Baseball swooned over the possibilities as its old wooden ballparks often burned to the ground.
For a mere $125,000, Osborn Engineering finished the Senator's new ballpark in just four months. But although the bleachers had yet to be covered, the newly named National Park was deemed ready enough for Opening Day. That day was historic for more than the Senator's 8-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox as President Taft threw out the first pitch, beginning a tradition that has lasted for more than a century.
Until the new stadium "officially" opened on July 24, 1911, construction continued while the team was on the road. While it was cost efficient, National Park didn't offer any of the frills that the newer stadiums offered such as the ornate facades of Forbes Field, Comiskey Park or Cleveland's League Park.
Like all stadiums, National Park had its quirks and it was beyond the Bohemian beer bottle sign standing high above right-center-field. When the stands along the foul lines were given a covered deck in 1920, the second deck roofs didn't connect with each other due to grading issues. Like many ballparks of the era, National Park blended in with its surrounding neighborhood as the right-angle notch in center-field was due to the owner refusing to sell during the ballpark's major renovations in 1920.
Another significant change happened to the young ballpark that year. After stepping down as the team's manager to assume full control of the ball club, Clark Griffith renamed American League Base Ball Park after himself, as was the custom of the era.
Although it was known as a "hitter's ballpark", only two men in recorded history ever smashed an out of the park home run. Josh Gibson of the Negro League's Homestead Grays did it twice in the 1940's and Mickey Mantle bashed his mythically legendary 565 foot homer there in the Spring of 1953.
While Griffith Stadium didn't see many championships in its 54 years of existence, it did host a few title games. After years of poor play, the Senators won the World Series in 1924 behind the mighty arm of Walter Johnson. The Homestead Grays enjoyed nine straight league titles and three Negro World Series championships between 1937 through 1948.
The Redskins didn't host any championship games until the nation was on the brink of war in 1940, losing in humiliating fashion to the Chicago Bears by 73 points. The Redskins had the last laugh two years later by beating the previously undefeated Monsters of the Midway 14-6 at Griffith Stadium. It would be their last title for the next 40 years.
Griffith Stadium hosted its share of boxing matches over the years with such box office draws like Joe Louis-Buddy Baer and Henry Armstrong-Phil Fur. It has been estimated that the ballpark hosted more than 150 fights in its lifetime, drawing crowds great and small. Aside from baseball, football and boxing, Griffith Stadium also hosted wrestling matches, numerous events to support the war effort like scrap metal drives, war bond sales and ballgames with the revenue earmarked for the troops overseas.
For years, it hosted the annual Night of Thrills, a circus event that was put on by the Masons for the Masons. To top it off, it even hosted the Billy Graham Crusade in June 1960, holding more than 139,000 individuals over the course of eight days.
By the early 1950s, the stadium had begun to look antiquated in the eyes of its tenants owners. It had been decades since its capacity was at its peak of 32,000 for a ballgame. With the advent of night games and the introduction of luxury boxes, Griffith Stadium was viewed as a stadium well behind the times.
Both the Redskins and Senators left after 1960, but in different fashions. While the Redskins moved across town to the newly-built D.C. Stadium, the Senators moved to Minnesota to become the Twins. Meanwhile, a new Senators team arose in the nation's capital. Like ghosts from the past, they played just a single year (1961) in Griffith Stadium before moving in with the Redskins.
Sensing the stadium's doom, Griffith Stadium's neighbor, the Church of God, played Auld Lang Syne on the Senator's last day in the stadium, signaling the end of an era. It was demolished on January 26, 1965 and the Howard University Hospital opened on that very spot ten years later where it resides today.
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