Here is one of my most popular stories I posted last summer.

It was always a special time in D.C. when Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees came to town to play the Washington Senators. The fans in the Nation's Capital came out in droves to Griffith Stadium in hopes to witness one of Ruth's mammoth home runs. One of those mammoth home runs took place on May 7, 1921 when Ruth knocked a Walter Johnson fastball over the tall center field wall.

During his baseball career Ruth hit 34 home runs at Griffith Stadium. On more than one occasion Ruth would send the ball out of Griffith Stadium into the cluster of trees that were located on the other side of the right field wall.

It was not uncommon for Ruth to knock the cover off of the ball at Griffith Stadium, what was uncommon was the day Griffith Stadium knocked out the great Babe Ruth. On July 5, 1924 the Washington Senators first baseman Joe Judge hit a fly ball to right field, Ruth ran as hard as he could after the ball that was slicing foul, before Ruth got to the ball he got knocked out when he ran into the concrete wall. There he was the Great Bambino knocked out cold for five minutes. The Babe recovers after Yankees' trainer Doc Woods pours some cold water on his face. The next day in the top of 8th inning Ruth gets his revenge when he hits his 22nd home run of the season off of Senators' pitcher Joe Martina.

On September 29, 1934 Babe Ruth hits his last home run in Griffith Stadium when in the top of the 7th inning he hit a three run home run off of the Senators' Syd Cohen. The last memorable moment for the Sultan of Swat at Griffith Stadium came on September 30, 1934. For Ruth this day was one of his saddest days of his storied career as it is the last game Ruth will ever play as a member of the Yankees. Before the game the Senators honored Babe Ruth with a ceremony where they gave him gifts and a chance to speak to the crowd at Griffith Stadium. The Babe's last at bat as a Yankee was a fly out to the center field.

      

After the first 90 games this season Adam Dunn is having a career year in many offensive categories. Dunn seems to be getting it done by changing his approach when he is at bat. For most of his career Dunn has been a very selective hitter at the plate. If the pitch isn't in the strike zone Dunn won't swing. With that approach Dunn has been walked over 100 times in seven of his last eight seasons.

This season after having a very dismal April, Dunn has seen his numbers improve almost daily. It seems like he is approaching his at bats differently in the last 60 games or so. It looks like he is swinging at more pitches now. Currently Adam Dunn's batting average is at .291 that is more than 40 points higher than his career average. 

He is on pace to have career highs in base hits, doubles, triples, batting average, total bases plus slugging. The only number that is low is his walks. Going into tonight's game with the Florida Marlins he only has 41 walks. At this pace he will end the season with 72 to 77 walks. It looks like he will end up having 30 to 35 less walks this season than his average season but he will have 25 to 30 more base hits this season compared to his average season.

      

July 17, 2010

Last night in the top of the fourth inning the Florida Marlin's left-fielder Chris Coghlan made a diving catch that deprived the Nats' Ryan Zimmerman of his 300th career extra base hit. It is just a matter of time the 25-year-old Zimmerman will become the 16th player in Washington baseball history and the 11th player in Expos-Nats franchise history to reach the 300th extra base hit plateau.

Currently Zimmerman who is in playing in his fifth full season with the Nats has hit 180 doubles, 12 triples and 107 home runs. In three of his four seasons Zimmerman hit 70 or more extra base hits. Over the years Zimmerman has been a very consistent extra base hitter the only thing that has changed over the past year and a half is the type of extra base hits.

From 2005 to 2008, Zimmerman hit a total 124 doubles and 58 home runs, since the beginning of the 2009 season Zimmerman has hit 56 doubles and 49 home runs.

      

James Barton "Mickey" Vernon who was born on April 22, 1918 in Marcus Hook, PA, made his Major League and Washington Senator debut on July 8, 1939. In his first game Vernon went 1 for 5 at the plate and played first base as the Senators beat the Philadelphia Athletics 6-3. During the rest of the '39 season Vernon played in 76 games and ended the season with a .257 batting average. During the 1940 season Vernon only appeared in five games for the Senators and spent the rest of the season playing for Jersey City of the International League.

From 1941 to 1943 Vernon became the Senators starting first baseman. During Vernon's first two full seasons with the Senators he became a good hitter and a very good fielder. On October 16, 1943 Vernon was inducted into the United States Navy. During the next two years Vernon spent most of his time in the South Pacific. On October 4, 1945 Vernon was discharged from the service.  

During spring training in 1946 Vernon beat out Joe Kuhel for the starting first baseman position. The '46 season turned into Vernon's dream season as he led the American League with a .353 batting average. The next two seasons Vernon saw his batting average drop to .267 in '47 and .242 in '48. On December 14, 1948 the Senators trade Mickey Vernon and Early Wynn to the Cleveland Indians for Joe Haynes, Ed Klieman and Eddie Robinson. 

After one and a half seasons the Indians trade Vernon back to Washington for a 23-year old pitcher named Dick Weik. After three solid seasons with the Senators Vernon found his hitting stroke again during the '53 season as he edged out Al Rosen of the Indians .337 to .336 to win his second American League Hitting Title.

The Gentleman First Baseman will have two more very productive seasons in '54 and '55 with the Senators before being part of a nine player trade between Washington and Boston on November 8, 1955. The 38-year old Vernon hit for a .310 batting average in 119 games for the Red Sox in 1956. In 1957 Vernon's numbers start to decline as he played in only 102 games and ended the season with a .241 batting average. The Red Sox let Vernon go after the '57 season.  

Mickey Vernon was picked up by the Cleveland Indians for the '58 season where he played in 119 games and produced a .293 batting average. In 1959 the Indians traded Vernon to Milwaukee where Vernon was used sparingly. The Braves released Vernon after the '59 season. On September 1, 1960 Vernon signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates and played in what ended up being his last 9 games of his career as the Pirates released the 42-year old Vernon on September 30, 1960.

In total Mickey was selected to the all-star team seven times and still holds the major league record for the most double plays at first base (2,044). It was also known that Mickey Vernon had some very influential fans. The most influential of those fans was the 34th President of the United States of America, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

After Mickey’s playing days were over he came back to the Nation’s Capital in 1961 to manage the new Washington Senators franchise. In two plus years as the Senators manager Vernon could only win 135 of 362 games.

      

July 7, 1937

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is the first President to attend an All-Star game as he is invited to throw out the first ball at Griffith Stadium in Washington D.C. The President and the rest of the sellout crowd of 31,391 at the 5th Annual All-Star game had to deal with a very hot and muggy afternoon. The game time temperature was reported to be 90 degrees.

The D.C. heat did not seem to bother the Yankees' first baseman Lou Gehrig who drove in four runs with a home run and a double to lead the American League to an 8-3 victory over the National League.

Dizzy Dean, the star Cardinal pitcher is not only the losing pitcher of the game he also gets his toe fractured when Earl Averill hits a ball that nails Dean in the foot. After that injury Dizzy will end up changing his pitching delivery. The change in his delivery will lead to a very bad arm injury.

The Washington Senators were represented on the American League squad by 2nd Baseman - Buddy Myer, Catcher - Rick Ferrell, and Pitcher - Wes Ferrell. What I find interesting is that the Yankees' skipper Joe McCarthy who was managing the American League did not allow any of the three Senators to make it into the game. With the American League leading the National League squad 8 to 3 after six innings you would think one of the Senator players could have made an appearance. Click here to view the box score of the 5th Annual All Star Game.

FYI: I hope you enjoy the film clip of FDR throwing out the first pitch.

      

Last February, I posted a Q&A session that I had with the son "George Case III" of George Case Jr., a star player with Washington Senators' from 1937 to 1945 and again in his final season in 1947. George Case Jr. made his debut with the Washington Senators on September 8, 1937. During his playing days with Washington he led the Major Leagues a record five consecutive seasons “1939-1943” in stolen bases. During his career Case led the league in stolen bases six times. George Case was also a four time all-star outfielder during his playing days in Washington.

During the interview I asked George about a baseball film his father made, Around The League 1939-46. Below is his reply.

My pleasure as I believe it is rather unique! My dad was always a “home movie buff” – during his playing career he took 8mm COLOR “home movies” and would show his movies to our family during the off season. Several years before my dad became quite ill, I mentioned to him that he should record just who the players were and what was going on in the 8mm COLOR “home movies” – well, he took it upon himself to transfer the silent 8mm COLOR footage to a silent VHS tape and then speak into a tape recorder to narrate the various scenes. After my dad’s death in 1989, I decided to produce a VHS tape by combining the audio and video into a 40 minute production titled “Around The League, 1939-1946” – the time frame for the FULL COLOR baseball scenes – originally filmed and later narrated by my father. I have now converted the VHS tape to a DVD format and am presently “re-mastering” the DVD with the help of my son George and grandson, Nathan.

I’ll be happy to let you and your readers know when the “re-mastering” is completed as the DVD is available for sale to all baseball fans and is a “behind the scenes look at major league baseball through the eyes of a big leaguer.”

A few days ago George Case III was kind enough to let me know the film with Hall of Famer's Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, Bill Dickey, Jimmie Foxx and Lefty Grove has been re-mastered and is ready for purchase. I believe all fans of baseball history will enjoy this wonderful film. If you are interested in purchasing this film please visit them at - www.timelessbaseball.com

Watch the video below:

      

June 23, 1917

The Babe Gets Ejected After Walking Senators' Morgan

In the top of the first inning of the first game of a scheduled double-header between the Senators and the Red Sox, Babe Ruth gave up a four pitch walk to the Senators’ Ray Morgan. The 24 year old Ruth was so outraged that umpire Brick Owens called four straight balls that Ruth threatened to punch the umpire. Brick Owens did not waste any time throwing out the Red Sox hurler. To cap it off Owens tossed out Pinch Thomas the Red Sox starting catcher.

With the Senators’ Ray Morgan on first base, Ernie Shore took the mound for the Red Sox, and Sam Agnew took over as the Red Sox catcher. Before the crowd stopped booing at Fenway Park, Agnew went on to throw out Morgan as he attempted to steal 2^nd base.

At the time no one knew it, but Ray Morgan would be the last Senator to get on base. Ernie Shore went on to retire the next twenty six Senators to pick up the very first combined no-hitter in the Major League. In fact the record shows that Shore pitched a perfect game as the Red Sox recorded 27 consecutive outs while Shore was in the game. The Red Sox won the first game 4-0 and followed that up with a 5-0 victory in game two.

June 23, 1933

Cronin's 5th Consecutive Multi Hit Game

Player and Manager Joe Cronin lead the Senators to their 3rd straight victory, 7 to 3, over the White Sox, with his 5th consecutive multi-hit game. The victory puts the Senators a half-game ahead of the New York Yankees.

At the time Cronin set a Major League Record with 13 hits in a three game span and 15 hits in four game span.

Quick Facts:

• Washington Senators end the season in 1st place (99-53) in the American League, seven games ahead of the New York Yankees (91-59).
• Washington Senators lose the World Series in five games to the New York Giants.
• The 1933 Washington Senators team had a total of four future Hall of Fame players.

Joe Cronin
Goose Goslin
Heinie Manush
Sam Rice

• In 1933 Washington Senators pitcher Alvin Crowder joined shortstop Joe Cronin on the first ever American League All Star Team.

      

Before Walter Johnson was known as The Big Train he was The Weiser Wonder. In the summer of 1907, Walter Johnson was pitching for the Weiser "semi-pro" team in the Idaho State League. The 19-year old hurler was so dominating that he caught the attention of many Major League scouts from the east. On June 17, 1907 Joe Cantillion sent a telegram to Walter Johnson letting him know that the Senators were very interested in signing him to a contract.

A couple weeks later Joe Cantillion sent injured catcher Cliff Blankenship to Idaho to scout the young phenom. Cantillion told Blankenship who was not known to be a great hitter to take his bat on the trip. Cantillion tells Blankenship that if he can manage to hit a foul ball off the young Johnson, to leave him in Idaho. A few days later, Blankenship sends a telegram to his skipper saying, "you can't hit what you can't see. I've signed him and he is on his way."

In fact, Walter was not on his way. He told Blankenship he would only sign if the Senators agreed to let him play for Weiser through the end of their season. On June 29th the Washington Senators signed Walter Johnson to a contract that paid him $350 a month, a $100 bonus and train fare.

On July 21, 1907 Walter Johnson left Spokane on his way to the Nation's Capital. Two weeks later, on August 2nd, Walter Johnson makes his Major League debut against the Detroit Tigers.

      

On this day in 1927, Walter “The Big Train” Johnson gave up only three hits as he led the Washington Senators (18-18) to a 3-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox (10-26). The shutout will be the Big Train’s “Major League Record” 110th career shutout and the last one of his illustrious career.

Walter Johnson’s shutout record is one Major League Baseball record that will never be broken. Currently there is not one active pitcher with enough shutouts to be registered on the Top 100 Career Shutouts List. To see how out of reach this record is all you have to do is look at the list of active players with the most complete games in a career. Roy Halladay leads that list with (54) complete games.

      

On May 28, 1941 the New York Yankees and the Washington Senators played in the first night game under the lights at Griffith Stadium. The first night game at Griffith Stadium was a big deal. The Washington Senators invited Walter “Big Train” Johnson to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. It was actually the Big Train’s first pitch that triggered the lights to turn on.

The Washington Senators (14-25) played inspired ball as they held a 3-1 lead over the New York Yankees (21-18) going into the eighth inning. The top of the eighth inning was the downfall for Senators’ pitcher Sid Hudson, who gave up a pinch hit grand slam to *George Selkirk. By the time the top half of the eighth inning was over the Yanks held a 6-3 lead. The Yankees held off the pesky Senators to win the game 6-5.

The Washington Senators will get their redemption over the New York Yankees on the same day five years later. On the evening of May 28, 1946 the Washington Senators (20-14) beat the New Yankees (23-16) in a 2-1 nail biter. This game was the first game to be played under the lights at Yankee Stadium.

*George Selkirk was the General Manager of the second Washington Senators franchise from 1962 to 1968.