September 30, 1971: The Last Washington Senators Game Is Played

September 30, 1971: The last Washington Senators game is played, against the New York Yankees at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington. Team owner Bob Short, having already moved the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles in 1960, has announced he's moving the Senators to the Dallas area, to become the Texas Rangers. He complains about the low attendance, despite having the highest ticket prices in the American League, and no subway access to RFK Stadium. (Washington's Metro would not open until 1976.)

Frank Howard, the Senators' most popular player in their 2nd go-around of 1961-71, hits the last home run. Dick Bosman starts, and stands to be the winning pitcher, as the Senators lead 7-5 with 1 out left in the 9th. All he has to do is get Bobby Murcer out.

Frank Howard

But he can't, through no fault of his own. Angry fans from the "crowd" of 14,461 people storm the field. The umpires cannot restore order, and they forfeit the game to the Yankees. The next April, Bosman also started the team's 1st game as the Rangers.

Only 2 AL games have been forfeited since, both promotions that turned into fiascos: The Cleveland Indians' Ten-Cent Beer Night in 1974, and the Chicago White Sox' Disco Demolition Night in 1979. Rusty Torres, who turned 23 on this day, was also in uniform on each of those occasions.

That last season had been a difficult one for the Senators, even before the move was announced. Ted Williams had been named their manager in 1969, and the man who literally wrote the book on hitting (The Science of Hitting, published the next year) really improved their hitting, to the point where the Senators won 86 games. It was the best season in Washington baseball since 1945, when the original Senators, who moved to become the Minnesota Twins in 1961 and were replaced by this expansion team, won 87 and missed the Pennant by a game and a half.

But the Boston Red Sox legend couldn't improve the pitching, and soon, the hitters stopped listening to his authoritarian ways. The Senators won only 70 games in 1970. In 1971, they traded for Denny McLain, the former 2-time Cy Young Award winner whose shoulder injury and bad attitude rendered him nearly useless; and the rights to Curt Flood, who had refused to accept a trade from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies, but was willing to come back and play in Washington, and was so rusty after sitting 1970 out that he had to retire.

The Senators won just 63 games, and while a solid core of fans missed them, the D.C. metropolitan area as a whole did not. As Richard Nixon, President at the time, was quoted as saying, "All anybody cares about in Washington is the Redskins." And since the Redskins won the NFC Championship in 1972, and stayed contenders for the next 20 years, this was one time when Nixon was right.

In 1973, the NBA's Baltimore Bullets moved down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, and were successful for the next 10 years, including a Championship in 1978. The 1970s also saw a renaissance in basketball at the University of Maryland, located outside the District of Columbia, but inside the Capital Beltway.

In 1974, the NHL introduced the Washington Capitals, and, while they were terrible their first few years, they have usually been contenders since the mid-1980s. The 1980s also saw the rise of the basketball team at Georgetown University.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan went to the MLB city closest to Washington at the time, Baltimore, and threw out the ceremonial first ball before the Orioles' home opener, restoring the old Washington tradition. Although the Orioles fell into decline after a generation of winning, including 3 World Series wins (including 4 Pennants from 1966 to 1971, which took many Maryland fans away and, indirectly, helped to doom the Senators), Washington insiders began making the trip up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, and the Orioles became D.C.'s team as well as Baltimore's.

The Orioles' 1989 Playoff run, though ultimately unsuccessful, increased interest from Washington area fans. The building of Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1992 moved them just 4 miles, but it also put them next to Interstate 95, the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, and Camden Station, all with access to D.C.

This whetted capital-area baseball appetites even more, and led to the 2004-05 move of the Montreal Expos, becoming the Washington Nationals. They played the 2005, '06 and '07 seasons at RFK Stadium before moving to Nationals Park. Being in the other League means their rivalry with the Orioles isn't as nasty as Yankees-Red Sox, Dodgers-Giants, or even Cubs-Cardinals. The fact that the teams are partners in the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (the O's own 77 percent of MASN, and the Nats 23 percent) also helps.

The Nats finally started making the Playoffs in 2012, the 1st postseason for a Washington baseball team since the 1933 Senators, unless you count the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues, who split their "home games" between Washington and Pittsburgh. And in 2019, the Nats won the World Series, the 1st such win for Washington since the 1924 Senators.

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September 30, 1971 was a Thursday. These 8 other Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1 at Shea Stadium. Tom Seaver gets the win, his 20th of the season, and will go on to win his 2nd Cy Young Award. A young right fielder named Ken Singleton, who had grown up in New York as a Met fan, hits 2 home runs. But he will become better known for playing for the Baltimore Orioles, and broadcasting for the Yankees.

No one knows it at the time, but this is the last game the Mets will play with Gil Hodges as their manager. At the end of Spring Training in 1972, he suffers a heart attack and dies, not quite 48 years old.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 5-3 at Jarry Park in Montreal. The retiring Ernie Banks played his last game with the Cubs 4 days earlier.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell both went 1-for-4.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-2 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Pete Rose went 1-for-4. Both the Reds' Johnny Bench and the Braves' Hank Aaron got the day off.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres 5-1, at what was then named San Diego Stadium. (It was later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium, and SDCCU Stadium.) The Giants thus clinch the National League Western Division title. This turns out to be their only postseason berth between 1962 and 1987.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The California Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

And actress Jenna Elfman was born.