Mark Hornbaker

Author's posts

The Beginning of the Big Trian’s Greatest Season

April 10, 1913 Behind the superb pitching of Walter Johnson the Washington Senators beat the newly named New York Yankees 2-1. With the Yankees only run being an unearned run Walter Johnson begins a streak of shutout innings that will reach a record 56 innings. Walter Johnson will go on to have his greatest season …

Continue reading

Wilkerson hits for the Cycle

April 6, 2005 In Philadelphia at Citizens Park the Washington Nationals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3. The Nats victory was the first by a Washington major league baseball team in thirty three and a half years. The Nationals Brad Wilkerson went 4 for 4 and hit for the cycle. The cycle was Wilkerson’s second of …

Continue reading

Walter Johnson honored at Testimonial Dinner

December 1, 1932 Washington D.C.- Around 600 Washington baseball fans from all over the area showed up at the Shoreham Hotel, for a testimonial dinner that was given to honor Walter Johnson, the recently fired Senators’ manager. Besides the hundreds of people in the banquet room the Big Train also received telegrams from President Hoover …

Continue reading

Wounded Veteran gets a Try Out

March 15, 1945 College Park, MD – Bert Shepard, a one legged veteran of World War II, tries out as a pitcher for the Washington Senators. The Senators owner Clark Griffith was so impressed with Shepard that he hired him as the team’s pitching coach. During the 1945 spring training Shepard with his artificial leg …

Continue reading

The Our Babe Marker Mystery is Solved

First posted December of 2012. Last fall I went to the Rockville Union Cemetery to take some pictures of Walter Johnson’s grave site for a future story. This was the first time in forty years I visited the site where Walter Perry Johnson and his wife Hazel Lee Johnson are buried. During my visit at …

Continue reading

Better Late Than Never

March 8, 1915 Charlottesville, VA Walter Johnson arrived a day later than expected to the Washington Senators training camp. Instead of being upset with Johnson the Senators’ owners were delighted to see him. With Johnson’s arrival to camp it left no doubt that he was going to pitch for the Senators this season. That wasn’t …

Continue reading

No raise for Hondo

Originally written on Jan. 9, 2012 After belting 36 home runs for the Senators in 1967, Frank Howard found himself spending most of the off-season negotiating a new contract with Senators’ General Manager George Selkirk. The Washington Post reported on January 9, 1968 that Senators’ GM Selkirk told Howard that he will not be receiving …

Continue reading

Big Train’s Throw Across the Rappahannock River

February 22, 1936 Originally posted on Feb,22, 2008 Fredericksburg, Virginia To celebrate George Washington’s 204th birthday the town of Fredericksburg planned a daylong celebration. To cap off the day the city invited baseball legend Walter Johnson to duplicate George Washington’s legendary throw of a silver dollar across the Rappahannock River. As the story goes U.S. …

Continue reading

Ted Williams agrees to manage ’69 Senators

On February 14, 1969 the AP reported that Hall of Famer, Ted Williams has agreed to manage the Washington Senators. From what I could gather Williams agreed to a 5-year contract that would pay him a sizable salary plus shares of the team stock. The exact compensation package could not be verified but it is …

Continue reading

Willingham’s Two Grand Slams

July 27, 2009 Josh “The Hammer” Willingham accomplished a very rare feat when he became only the 13th player in major league baseball history to hit two grand slams in one game. Willingham’s first grand slam came off of the Brewers’ starting pitcher Jeff Suppan in the fifth inning. The second grand slam occurred only …

Continue reading