April 14, 2005: Major League Baseball Returns to Washington

April 14, 2005: Major League Baseball returns to Washington, D.C. after 33 seasons away. Ironically, the new home team is the Washington Nationals, who had been the Montreal Expos from 1969 to 2004, and played their 1st home game in Montreal exactly 36 years to the day before.

George W. Bush, former owner of the Texas Rangers, recently re-elected but not a particularly popular President, received a decent hand from the 45,596 fans at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium when he performed the usual Presidential duty of throwing out the ceremonial first ball. Presidents had done this in Baltimore, the next-closest MLB city to Washington, since Ronald Reagan restarted the tradition in 1984. William Howard Taft was the 1st President to do it, in 1910, but none had done it in Washington since Richard Nixon in 1969.

Also throwing out a "first ball" was Frank Howard, the former Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Senators slugger, the Senators' most popular player in their last few years before they were moved to become the Rangers after the 1971 season, and the player who hit the last home in a regular-season game in Washington. (Exhibition games had been played there in the interim.)

When Nationals Park opened in 2008, there would be statues of Howard, early Senators pitching legend Walter Johnson, and Josh Gibson, Negro Leagues legend who had played home games in D.C. with the Homestead Grays (who split their games between D.C. and Pittsburgh).

The Nationals had a built-in Hall-of-Famer from the very start: The Expos' last manager, and thus the Nats' 1st manager, was Frank Robinson. Slugger of 586 home runs, the only player to win the Most Valuable Player award in both Leagues, and the 1st black manager in each League, he was winding down a half-century in professional baseball.

The Nats' opening opponents were the Arizona Diamondbacks. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 4th. José Vidro led off with a double, José Guillén was hit with a pitch, Ryan Church popped up, Vinny Castilla tripled home Vidro and Guillén, and Brian Schneider hits a sacrifice fly to bring Castilla home. The Nats led, 3-0.

Castilla hit a home run in the bottom of the 6th, driving in Church, to make it 5-0. Liván Hernández pitched very well for 8 innings, but ran out of gas in the 9th, giving up a 3-run homer to Chad Tracy. Robinson brought Chad Cordero on to get the last 3 outs, and the Nats won, 5-3.

Castilla's home run

It would take the Nats until 2012 to make the Playoffs, and 2019 before they won a postseason series -- and then go all the way and win the World Series.

UPDATE: The Nationals have a Ring of Honor at Nationals Park, based in part of the old "Washington Wall of Stars" at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium:

* From the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues, who split their "home games" between Washington and Pittsburgh: 1st baseman Walter "Buck" Leonard, 3rd baseman Ernest Judson "Jud" Wilson, center fielder James "Cool Papa" Bell, catcher Josh Gibson, pitcher Ray Brown; and team owner Cumberland Posey. Gibson, Leonard and Bell have also been elected to the Washington DC Sports Hall of Fame, also based on the Wall of Stars.

* From the "old" Washington Senators, 1901-1960: 1910s and '20s pitcher Walter Johnson, 1920s 2nd baseman and manager Stanley "Bucky" Harris, 1920s right fielder Sam Rice, 1920s and '30s left fielder Leon "Goose" Goslin, 1930s shortstop Joe Cronin, 1930s left fielder Henry "Heinie" Manush, 1940s catcher Rick Ferrell, 1940s pitcher Early Wynn, 1950s 3rd baseman Harmon Killebrew, and longtime owner Clark Griffith.

Johnson, Harris, Rice, Goslin, Cronin, Wynn, Killebrew and Griffith were also elected to the Washington DC Sports Hall of Fame. So were 1910s and '20s 1st baseman Joe Judge, 1920s pitcher Fred "Firpo" Marberry, 1920s and '30s 2nd baseman Clarence "Buddy" Myer, 1920s and '30s 3rd baseman Oswald "Ossie" Bluege, 1930s and '40s 3rd baseman Cecil Travis, 1940s outfielder George Case, 1940s and '50s 1st baseman Mickey Vernon, 1940s and '50s 3rd baseman Eddie Yost, and 1950s broadcaster Bob Wolff.

* From the "new" Washington Senators, 1961-1971: Bucky Harris, as a scout; and 1st baseman Frank Howard. Howard, outfielder Chuck Hinton, manager Gil Hodges and general manager George Selkirk have been honored in the Washington DC Sports Hall of Fame. So has Johnny Holliday, a legendary radio personality in Cleveland, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Washington area, who has worked with the Senators, the Nationals,  the Bullets/Wizards, the Redskins/Commanders and the Capitals.

* From the Nats' previous incarnation, as the Montreal Expos: Catcher Gary Carter, center fielder Andre Dawson, left fielder Tim Raines, and the man who was already a Baseball Hall-of-Famer when he was named manager of the Expos, staying after the move to Washington, Frank Robinson.

* From the Nationals: Robinson and catcher Iván Rodríguez were inducted due to being members of the Baseball Hall of Fame for their service elsewhere. But for their performance with them, the Nationals have honored 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman (whose Number 11 is, so far, their only retired number), right fielder Jayson Werth, and team owner Ted Lerner. So far, Lerner and his son and the team's new owner, Mark Lerner, are the only Nats figures honored in the Washington DC Sports Hall of Fame.

The Nationals have also honored Walter Johnson, Josh Gibson and Frank Howard with statues outside Nationals Park.

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April 14, 2005 was a Thursday. These other MLB games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 8-5 at Fenway Park. Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui each got 3 hits, but Randy Johnson did not have a good start, and former Red Sox reliever Tom Gordon blew it in the 8th inning.

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 4-3 at Shea Stadium.

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 12-7 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-6 at Jacobs Field in Cleveland. (It's now named Progressive Field.)

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-4 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* And the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1 at Ameriquest Field in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. (It's now named Choctaw Stadium.)

The NFL was out of season. The NHL team owners canceled the 2004-05 season over greed. There were 3 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 95-89 at the Gund Arena in Cleveland. (It's now named the Rocket Arena.) LeBron James scored 27 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, but in a losing effort.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Miami Heat, 126-119 in overtime at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. (It's now named the Wells Fargo Center.) Dwyane Wade scored 48 points for the Heat, but the Sixers got 38 from Allen Iverson, 26 from Marc Jackson, and 20 from Kyle Korver.

* And the Dallas Mavericks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 102-90 at the Moda Center in Portland.