Jeffrey Stuart
Author's posts
Mar 11
After the Fall of 1971
By Jeff Stuart “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.” After the Senators final game on Sept 30, 1971, there was no home team. But there were 17 exhibition professional baseball games played at RFK Stadium between then and April 2005, when the former Montreal Expos …
Mar 07
Papa Joe – Griffith’s Loyal Scout
By Jeff Stuart At the time of Joe Cambria’s passing on September 24, 1962 at the age of 72, Washington Post Sports columnist Bob Addie called him. “the best baseball scout that ever lived.” At a birthday party for the late Clark Griffith some years earlier, Cambria told Addie, “I’ve been with this club so …
Feb 26
Del Unser: A Class Act
By Jeff Stuart After the Senators left Washington after the 1971 season, I had scant interest in baseball, though I made a few yearly trips up 1-95 to Memorial Stadium and tuned in at playoff time. The 1980 National League play-off series between the Phillies and Astros remains a personal favorite. It wasn’t because the …
Feb 23
The Man With The Big Chaw
By Jeff Stuart Rocky Bridges was almost instantly recognizable for the huge tobacco chaw inside his left cheek. Only Nellie Fox of the White Sox came close to matching that tobacco swell. Born with the first name of Everett, he got the name “Rocky” from a minor league announcer in Greenville, SC when he played …
Oct 28
At the Ballpark, Nixon was Unimpeachable
By Jeff Stuart Far from the highs and lows of a tumultuous life in politics, Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, found refuge at the ballpark. As a kid I saw the then Vice President several times walking in what passed for a concourse at Griffith Stadium. To me, his smile seemed …
Oct 15
Mikey, We Hardly Knew You
By Jeff Stuart “I can’t develop personal relationships with these guys. I gotta be able to trade ’em, send ’em down, sometimes cut them. Which is something you should learn to do, by the way. They’re professional ball players. Just be straight with them. No fluff, just facts. ‘Pete, I gotta let you go. Jack’s …
Sep 09
From 1965 to 1969, Kenny McMullen Gave the Senators a Boost
By Jeff StuartOn Jun 29, 1963; The Los Angeles Dodgers announced that they had recalled infielder Ken McMullen from Spokane to replace Don Zimmer who had recently been traded to the Washington Senators.McMullen signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers upon graduation from Oxnard High School. He was one of the last of baseball’s bonus babies.His …
Aug 23
Denny McLain In Washington
After winning 86 games in 1969 under first year Manager Ted Williams, the Senators won just 70 in 1970. Attendance dropped from 918,106 in ’69 to 824,789. Nats owner Bob Short felt he had to make a move. So at the end of the 1970 season, the Senators traded popular shortstop Brinkman, and third baseman …
Jun 03
George “Bingo” Binks and His Day in the Sun
By Jeff StuartThere have been 4 World Series involving a Washington Baseball Team, in 1924, 1925, 1933, and 2019. Washington won the first and last of these. But there could have been another. In 1945, the year I was born, the team was competitive and was in the battle for first place. Major League rosters …
May 09
A Fond Memory of Herb Plews
By Jeff Stuart One of my earliest baseball memories was watching a Senators – Yankees game on Wenesday evening, August 8, 1956 at Griffith Stadium on WTTG – Channel 5 in Washington. The Yankees won 12-2. But Washington’s rookie second baseman Herb Plews had 4 hits and 3 doubles, all off Yankee fireballer Bob Turley. …
