Jeffrey Stuart

Author's posts

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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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. …

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Catch and Throw – Nats Web Gems

By Jeff Stuart “A good friend of mine used to say, ‘This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.’ Think about that for a while.” Nuke Laloosh in the Movie BULL DURHAM Sometimes the game is …

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A Gamble that Payed Off

By Jeff Stuart In the summer of 1957, my mother – who did not like baseball – came home from a Senators promotional event one day with a baseball autographed by Roy Sievers. My brother Chris and I almost immediately took the ball outside and played with it.I have no idea how many hours of …

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Sunday, Bloody Sunday

By Jeff Stuart In their inaugural 2005 season the Washington Nationals played exceptionally well for the first half of the season. At the mid-season point, after winning 9 of 10 and sweeping the Pirates at home and the Cubs in Chicago, their record stood at 51-30. They were in first place on July 4. Then …

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The Physics of a Curveball

By Jeff Stuart “[The curveball is very difficult to throw, very difficult to control,” said Dick Bosman, former Senators’ pitcher and Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ minor league pitching coordinator. “On an average 12-man staff, you might have two guys who throw curveballs.”For a long time, physicists argued that a baseball couldn’t curve, that it was …

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