June 16
1925 – Walter Johnson becomes the AL’s first 10 game winner. The 3-0 win moves the 2nd place Nats to within 1 game of league leading Philadelphia. Box Score
1935 – Sportsman’s Park is kind to Sens OF John Stone today. In today’s doubleheader split with St.Louis, Stone racks up 4 singles, 2 doubles and 2 triples for a total of 8 hits. Stone crosses the plate 5 times in the opener, a 17-8 Washington win. St. Louis outshoots Washington, 10-9, in game 2.
1936 – Carl Reynold’s pinch hit, 2-run homer in the top of the 10th is just enough, as the Senators take home a 9-8 victory in Detroit.
1944 – The BoSox witness their 9 game win streak halted. Washington, behind the pitching of Milo Candini, shutouts the Red Sox, 4-0, in D.C.
1952 – Bobo Newsom is released, thus ending his 5th, and final, stint in Washington.
1957 – The Nats dig the hometown White Sox a 6-0 hole, but the South Siders score 8 unanswered runs to win, 8-6. Reliever Dixie Howell of Chicago hits 2 home runs and gains the win. 1965 – A leadoff single in the top of the 7th by Woodie Held spoils the Tribe’s Luis Tiant‘s no hit bid. Held’s single is the Nats only safety of the evening. Tiant and the Indians easily banish Washington, 5-0.
1967 – The Senators send their fans home happy with a twinbill sweep of the Red Sox. Sens hurlers Bob Priddy and Dave Baldwin team up to make Priddy’s RBI stand in a 1-0 Sens victory. In the finale of the doubleheader, Boston cruises into the bottom of the 9th with a 3-0 advantage. The Nats roar back for 4 runs in the frame to shock Boston, 4-3.
1971 – When former Nat Mike Epstein homers in his first 2 at bats, he ties a record with 4 straight home runs in 2 games. The AL West leading A’s defeat the Senators, 5-1, in Oakland, courtesy of five solo home runs. In addition to Epstein’s 2 solo jobs, Dave Duncan and Joe Rudi also go yard for the A’s.
Senators Birthdays
Thomas (Rags) Ragland B Jun. 16, 1946 Still Living
Tom Ragland was drafted by the Senators in the amateur draft of 1965. He wouldn’t show up with the big club until 1971. Appearing in 10 games as a second baseman, he would only go 4-23 at the plate, for a .174 BA. Despite the low BA, Ragland holds the distinction of having scored the last run in expansion Senators history when, on a Tom McCraw RBI, he crossed the plate to give Washington a 7-5 lead over the Yankees on Sept. 30, 1971. Of course, we all know the story (See Joe Grzenda, June 8 for the details) as the Senators ended up forfeiting to the Yankees 9-0. Ragland would go to Texas with the franchise when they abandoned DC after the 1971 season, appearing in 25 games in with the Rangers. Traded to the Cleveland Indians for Vince Colbert, he would have his best season with the Indians in 1973 when he appeared in 67 games, playing both 2nd base and shortstop and hit .257. However, his major league career ended after that season.
