September 15 
1911 – Jimmy McAleer becomes the first Washington manager not to be fired. Instead, he tenders his resignation to become a part owner of the Red Sox, effective after the season.
1917 – Behind Harry Harper in game one and Walter Johnson in game two, the Nats toss aside the visiting A’s, 5-0 and 4-0.
1940 – 7th place Washington defeats 1st place Detroit‚ 6-1‚ behind knuckleballer Dutch Leonard. Fred Hutchinson is the losing pitcher for the home team.
1945 – Trailing the Tigers by a half game for 1st place, Washington begins a huge 5 game series at Griffith against Detroit. Playing two games today, the Senators miss a golden opportunity to take over the top spot. Washington chases Hal Newhouser in the opener, but the Tigers break a 6th inning tie to take the contest, 7-4. The Senators are downed again in the nightcap, 7-3, when the Bengals, again, snap a 6th inning tie. The losses drop the Sens to 2.5 games back.
1969 – The Senators overcome a 2-0, 8th inning hole at RFK to rally for a 3-2 win over the Orioles. Mike Epstein‘s triple drives in Del Unser and Lee Maye to knot the game in the 8th. In the 9th, with starter Jim Palmer still on the hill, Ed Brinkman‘s single brings home Toby Harrah for the victory.
Senators Birthdays
Nicholas Altrock B Sept. 15, 1876 D Jan. 20, 1965
Altrock is probably most renowned for his comedy duo with Senator teammates Gemany Schaefer and Al Schacht. Despite winning only 2 games in his Senator career, Altrock provided needed comedy relief for some bad to mediocre Washington teams in the 1910’s. Along with Schaefer and, later, Schacht, the duo would don clown makeup for games and develop about 150 pantomime routines to entertain fans. One of Altrock’s more popular gimmicks was to mimic umpires from the coaches box during games, which did not endear Altrock to the arbiters.
It is easy to forget that this lefthander was, prior to his arrival in D.C. in 1909, one of the better pitchers in the AL. After debuting with the NL’s Louisville Colonels in 1898 and a short stint with the Boston Americans, Altrock found his niche with the White Sox. From 1904-1906, Altrock won 19, 23 and 20 games for the White Sox. In the 1906 World Series against the cross town Cubs, the southpaw went 1-1 with a 1.00 ERA in the “Hitless Wonders” upset of the favored Cubs. Altrock was also a fine fielding pitcher and still holds some fielding records for pitchers.
On the last day of the 1933 season, Altrock, 57 years old, entered the record books by becoming the oldest player, at the time, to appear in a major league game. As well, he also became the first to play in 5 different decades. He would stay on the Washington baseball scene as a Senator’s coach until 1959.
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/play…hp?p=altroni01
Link to an article on the SABR website
