Part 3 of a series on 1969 Washington Senators’ Spring Training
Once the excitement and commotion surrounding the Senators in the winter of 1969 — Robert E. “Bob” Short purchasing the team out from under rival bidder Bob Hope, Ted Williams signing on to manage, and the players’ strike for better pension terms led by Marvin Miller — ended, the team began practicing and soon played it early slate of “exhibition games,” the term then in vogue.
Those early games became dreary affairs for the Senators. They lost again and again. Williams stewed. D.C. sportswriters nodded cynically to each other. Yet another dreadful season loomed. Frank Howard sat in Wisconsin, performing his annual spring hold-out ritual.
To make bad matters worse, the weather in Pompano Beach, where the Senators trained, grew worse by the day. Unlike other springs, where the weather was warm and sunny, with ocean breezes wafting by, the spring of 1969 was wet, cold, and incessantly windy. (Here’s a link to a current google satellite image of Pompano Beach — http://www.mapquest.com/satellite-maps/pompano-beach-fl/). It is just up the road from the famous (or infamous South Beach).
The Senators/Texas Rangers trained at Pompano Beach and played at the Municipal Stadium until 1986. The stadium stood until 2008, when the city demolished it and built a multi-field baseball complex in its place. On the link above, the baseball complex is located between NE 8th Street and NE 10th Street. Four fields, in a clover shape stand just to the west of where Municipal Stadium once stood and the heroes of Washington area children trained to play the national pastime to the nation’s capital.
This wikipedia site has some great external links with pictures of Municipal Stadium, including one with a few Senators standing near the third base foul line. Fair warning — most of the pictures were taken just before the city demolished the stadium. They are quite depressing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompano_Beach_Municipal_Stadium
Back in 1969, though, Municipal Stadium teemed with life and, on March 15, obscure Senators’ outfielder Cap Peterson brought the old ball yard to life with one of the best, albeit wind-aided, displays of power seen all spring.
By 1969, Peterson was a 27 year-old journeyman outfielder trying desperately to stay in the major leagues. Peterson came to the Senators on December 13, 1966 along with veteran relief pitcher Bob Priddy when Washington sent the Giants promising left-handed pitcher Mike McCormick in exchange.
The trade tilted overwhelmingly in San Francisco’s favor. McCormick won 22 games for the Giants in 1967, while Priddy went 3-7 and Peterson hit a paltry .240 with 46 RBI and 8 home runs in 122 games. In the pennant race well into August in 1967, Gil Hodges could have used some of those victories McCormick gave the Giants.
One spring day in Pompano Beach, though made all that seem in the distant past. Buoyed by the winds blowing out to leftfield, Peterson lofted three home runs. His slugging led the Senators to their first spring training victory after 8 consecutive defeats.
Ted Williams was not fooled by Peterson’s power display. With Hondo and young phenom Del Unser locks for the left and center field positions, Cap had to compete with slugger Brant Alyea and speedsters Hank Allen and Ed Stroud for the final outfield position.
By spring’s end, Peterson no longer fit in Williams’ plans. On March 31, the Senators traded Peterson to the Cleveland Indians for young minor league fireballer George Woodson. It was another bad trade for the Senators. Woodson never made the majors and Peterson turned in one of the best season of his career for Al Dark‘s Tribe.
Dark platooned the right-handed hitting Peterson, maximizing his at-bats against lefties. Peterson had a low .227 average, but he walked 24 times in 137 plate appearances for a solid .356 on-base percentage. Unfortunately, no one believed in SABRmetrics back then and 1969 ended up being the spring slugger’s last in the majors.
Peterson played three more seasons in the minor leagues, retiring in 1972 from the Minnesota Twins’ organization. For the most part, Peterson’s major league career was ordinary and is now largely forgotten. Yet, for one shining moment in Pompano Beach, itself forgotten as a once thriving springtime home for the Senators, Peterson was a star.
Next: Hondo’s Holdout — The battle royale between Bob Short and The Capital Punisher that almost ended Frank Howard’s tenure in D.C.
Click here to read Part 1 of a Five Part Series on 1969 Spring Training
Click here to read Part 2, Ted (Finally) Gets His First Win
Steve Walker is the author of the book, “A Whole New Ballgame: The 1969 Washington Senators” available on Amazon: http://amzn.to/AzaNta or direct from the publisher, Pocol Press: http://bit.ly/y51taI
