Editing Minnesota Twins (section)

===Washington Nationals/Senators: 1901–1960===
{{main|Washington Senators (1901–1960)}}
[[File:1924worldseries.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Washington's [[Bucky Harris]] scores on his home run in the fourth inning of Game 7 of the 1924 World Series.]]

The team was founded in [[Washington, D.C.]], in {{mlby|1901}} as one of the eight original teams of the American League. It was named the '''[[Washington Senators (1901–1960)|Washington Senators]]''' from 1901 to 1904, the '''Washington Nationals''' from 1905 to 1955, and the Senators again from 1956 to 1960. But the team was commonly referred to as the Senators throughout its history (and unofficially as the "Grifs" during [[Clark Griffith]]'s tenure as manager from 1912 to 1920).<ref>{{cite web|last=Fleming|first=Frank|title=Sports Encyclopedia|url=http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/al/wasdc/nats.html|access-date=September 8, 2020|archive-date=October 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022082834/https://sportsecyclopedia.com/al/wasdc/nats.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The name "Nationals" appeared on uniforms for only two seasons, and then was replaced with the "W" logo. The media often shortened the nickname to "Nats" — even for the [[Texas Rangers (baseball)#Washington Senators (1961–1971)|1961 expansion team]]. The names "Nationals" and "Nats" were revived in 2005, when the [[Montreal Expos]] moved to Washington to become the [[Washington Nationals|Nationals]].

The Washington Senators spent the first decade of their existence finishing near the bottom of the American League standings. The team's long bouts of mediocrity were immortalized in the 1955 Broadway musical ''[[Damn Yankees]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/damnyankees.htm |title=Damn Yankees |publisher=The Broadway Musical Home |access-date=August 14, 2012 |archive-date=October 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003050242/http://broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/damnyankees.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Their fortunes began to improve with the arrival of 19-year-old pitcher, [[Walter Johnson]], in [[1907 Washington Senators season|1907]]. Johnson blossomed in [[1911 Washington Senators season|1911]] with 25 victories, although the team still finished the season in seventh place.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/WSH/1911.shtml |title=1911 Washington Senators |website=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=April 30, 2012 |archive-date=May 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503135858/http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/WSH/1911.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> In [[1912 Washington Senators season|1912]], the Senators improved dramatically, as their pitching staff led the league in team [[earned run average]] and in [[strikeout]]s. Johnson won 33 games while teammate [[Bob Groom]] added another 24 wins to help the Senators finish the season in second place.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/WSH/1912.shtml |title=1912 Washington Senators |website=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=April 30, 2012 |archive-date=May 2, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120502125758/http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/WSH/1912.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> Griffith joined the team in 1912 and became the team's owner in 1920.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://baseballhall.org/hof/griffith-clark |title=Griffith, Clark |publisher=Baseball Hall of Fame |access-date=August 14, 2012 |archive-date=July 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110712065724/http://baseballhall.org/hof/griffith-clark |url-status=live }}</ref> (The franchise remained under Griffith family ownership until 1984.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/21/sports/calvin-griffith-87-is-dead-tight-fisted-baseball-owner.html | work=The New York Times | first=Richard | last=Goldstein | title=Calvin Griffith, 87, Is Dead; Tight-Fisted Baseball Owner | date=October 21, 1999 | access-date=February 11, 2017 | archive-date=May 2, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502183859/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/21/sports/calvin-griffith-87-is-dead-tight-fisted-baseball-owner.html | url-status=live }}</ref>) The Senators continued to perform respectably in [[1913 Washington Senators season|1913]] with Johnson posting a career-high 35 victories, as the team once again finished in second place.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1913.shtml |title=1913 American League Team Statistics and Standings |website=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=April 30, 2012 |archive-date=August 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180829000139/https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1913.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> The Senators then fell into another decline for the next decade.
[[File:Walter Johnson and Calvin Coolidge shake hands FINAL.jpg|thumb|left|300px|President [[Calvin Coolidge]] (left) and Washington Senators pitcher [[Walter Johnson]] (right) shake hands following the Senators' 1924 championship.]]

The team had a period of prolonged success in the 1920s and 1930s, led by Walter Johnson, as well as fellow Hall-of-Famers [[Bucky Harris]], [[Goose Goslin]], [[Sam Rice]], [[Heinie Manush]], and [[Joe Cronin]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://baseballhall.org/hof/johnson-walter |title=Johnson, Walter |work=Baseball Hall of Fame |access-date=August 14, 2012 |archive-date=December 14, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214091120/http://baseballhall.org/hof/johnson-walter |url-status=live }}</ref>  In particular, a rejuvenated Johnson rebounded in [[1924 Washington Senators season|1924]] to win 23 games with the help of his catcher, [[Muddy Ruel]], as the Senators won the [[American League pennant]] for the first time in its history.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1924.shtml |title=1924 American League Team Statistics and Standings |website=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=April 30, 2012 |archive-date=June 11, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090611095515/http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1924.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> The Senators then faced [[John McGraw]]'s heavily favored [[1924 New York Giants season|New York Giants]] in the [[1924 World Series]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1924_WS.shtml |title=1924 World Series |website=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=April 29, 2012 |archive-date=November 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112042905/https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1924_WS.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> The two teams traded wins back and forth with three games of the first six being decided by one run.<ref>[http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1924ws.shtml 1924 World Series] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107100916/http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1924ws.shtml |date=November 7, 2020 }}, Baseball Almanac.  Includes box scores for all seven games of the 1924 World Series.</ref><ref>[http://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2004/m09/d29/c875177.jsp History of baseball in D.C.], on MLB.com but not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball, September 29, 2004.</ref> In the deciding 7th game, the Senators were trailing the Giants 3–1 in the 8th inning when Bucky Harris hit a routine ground ball to third that hit a pebble and took a bad hop over Giants third baseman [[Freddie Lindstrom]]. Two runners scored on the play, tying the score at three.<ref name="1924 World Series Game 7 box score at Baseball Reference">{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192410100.shtml |title=1924 World Series Game 7 box score |website=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=April 29, 2012 |archive-date=August 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120830143500/http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192410100.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> An aging Walter Johnson came in to pitch the ninth inning and held the Giants scoreless into extra innings. In the bottom of the twelfth inning, Ruel hit a high, [[foul ball]] directly over [[home plate]].<ref name="How Senators' Strategy Won for Johnson">{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZzIDAAAAMBAJ&q=muddy+ruel+baseball+digest&pg=PA37 |title=How Senators' Strategy Won for Johnson |author=Ruel, Muddy |date=October 1964 |magazine=Baseball Digest |access-date=April 29, 2012 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The Giants' catcher, [[Hank Gowdy]], dropped his protective mask to field the ball but, failing to toss the mask aside, stumbled over it and dropped the ball, thus giving Ruel another chance to bat.<ref name="How Senators' Strategy Won for Johnson"/> On the next [[Pitch (baseball)|pitch]], Ruel hit a [[Double (baseball)|double]]; he proceeded to score the winning [[Run (baseball)|run]] when [[Earl McNeely]] hit a [[ground ball]] that took another bad hop over Lindstrom's head.<ref name="1924 World Series Game 7 box score at Baseball Reference"/><ref name="How Senators' Strategy Won for Johnson"/> This would mark the only [[World Series]] triumph for the franchise during their 60-year tenure in Washington.

The [[1925 Major League Baseball season|following season]] they repeated as [[American League]] champions but ultimately lost the [[1925 World Series]] to the [[Pittsburgh Pirates]]. After Walter Johnson retired in 1927, he was hired as manager of the Senators. After enduring a few losing seasons, the team returned to contention in 1930. In [[1933 Washington Senators season|1933]], Senators owner Griffith returned to the formula that worked for him nine years earlier: 26-year-old shortstop Joe Cronin became [[player-manager (baseball)|player-manager]]. The Senators posted a 99–53 record and cruised to the pennant seven games ahead of the [[New York Yankees]], but in the [[1933 World Series]] the Giants exacted their revenge, winning in five games. Following the loss, the Senators sank all the way to seventh place in [[1934 Washington Senators season|1934]] and attendance began to fall. Despite the return of Harris as manager from 1935 to 1942 and again from 1950 to 1954, Washington was mostly a losing ball club for the next 25 years contending for the pennant only during World War II. Washington came to be known as "first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League";<ref>{{cite web |title=Washington Senators |url=https://baseballbiography.com/washington-senators |publisher=baseballbiography.com |access-date=August 7, 2009 }}</ref> their hard luck drove the plot of the musical and film ''Damn Yankees''. [[Cecil Travis]], [[Buddy Myer]] (1935 A.L. [[List of Major League Baseball Batting Champions|batting champion]]), [[Roy Sievers]], [[Mickey Vernon]] (batting champion in 1946 and 1953), and [[Eddie Yost]] were notable Senators players whose careers were spent in obscurity on losing teams.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rDQDAAAAMBAJ&q=spud%20davis%20baseball%20digest&pg=PA46 |title=13 Most Forgotten Stars In Major League History |author=Grosshandler, Stan |date=February 1981 |magazine=Baseball Digest |access-date=May 3, 2012 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zCoDAAAAMBAJ&q=eddie+yost+baseball+digest&pg=PA44 |title=20th Century All-Overlooked Stars |author=Vass, George |date=August 1999 |magazine=Baseball Digest |access-date=May 3, 2012 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In [[1954 Washington Senators season|1954]], the Senators signed future Hall of Fame member [[Harmon Killebrew]]. By [[1959 Washington Senators season|1959]], he was the Senators' regular third baseman and led the league with 42 home runs, earning him a starting spot on the [[1959 Major League Baseball All-Star Game (first game)|American League All-Star team]].

After Griffith's death in 1955, his nephew and adopted son [[Calvin Griffith|Calvin]] took over the team presidency. Calvin sold [[Griffith Stadium]] to the city of Washington and leased it back. This led to speculation that the team was planning to move, as the [[Boston Braves]], [[St. Louis Browns]], and [[Philadelphia Athletics]] had done in recent years. By 1957, after an early flirtation with San Francisco (where the [[New York Giants (NL)|New York Giants]] would move after the season), Griffith began courting Minneapolis–St. Paul, a prolonged process that resulted in his rejecting the Twin Cities' first offer<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Senators Reject Bids to Move to Minneapolis or St. Paul |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/10/22/archives/senators-reject-bids-to-move-to-minneapolis-or-st-paul-two-other.html?sq=giants+relocate+minneapolis&scp=2&st=p |journal=The New York Times |date=October 27, 1957 |access-date=May 2, 2008 |archive-date=July 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723065443/https://www.nytimes.com/1957/10/22/archives/senators-reject-bids-to-move-to-minneapolis-or-st-paul-two-other.html?sq=giants+relocate+minneapolis&scp=2&st=p |url-status=live }}</ref> before agreeing to move.  Home attendance in Washington, D.C., steadily increased from 425,238 in 1955 to 475,288 in 1958, and then jumped to 615,372 in 1959.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=VL4MErYRKN8C&dq=%22still+far+short+of+what+minnesota+was+offering%22+%221955+425%2C238%22+%221958+475%2C288%22+%221960+743%2C404%22&pg=PA231 ''The American League in Transition, 1965–1975: How Competition Thrived When the Yankees Didn't''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405172243/https://books.google.com/books?id=VL4MErYRKN8C&dq=%22still+far+short+of+what+minnesota+was+offering%22+%221955+425,238%22+%221958+475,288%22+%221960+743,404%22&pg=PA231 |date=April 5, 2023 }}, Paul Hensley, McFarland & Co. Publishers, 2013.</ref> However, part of the Minnesota deal guaranteed a million fans a year for three years, plus the potential to double TV and radio money.<ref>''The American League in Transition, 1965–1975'', Paul Hensley, page 13, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VL4MErYRKN8C&dq=%22Along+with+a+potential+to+gain+over+twice+as+much+profit+from+the+sale+of+television+and+radio+broadcast+rights+compared+to+what+Griffith+earned+in+Washington%2C+the+major+benefit+to+him+would+be+guaranteed+attendance+of+one+million+fans+per+season+for+the+initial+three-year+period%22&pg=PA13 "Along with a potential to gain over twice as much profit from the sale of television and radio . . "] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405202222/https://books.google.com/books?id=VL4MErYRKN8C&dq=%22Along+with+a+potential+to+gain+over+twice+as+much+profit+from+the+sale+of+television+and+radio+broadcast+rights+compared+to+what+Griffith+earned+in+Washington,+the+major+benefit+to+him+would+be+guaranteed+attendance+of+one+million+fans+per+season+for+the+initial+three-year+period%22&pg=PA13 |date=April 5, 2023 }}.</ref><ref>[https://www.sbnation.com/2013/8/29/4670580/the-cost-of-baseballs-broadcast-rights-in-1961 The cost of baseball's broadcast rights in 1961] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105002823/https://www.sbnation.com/2013/8/29/4670580/the-cost-of-baseballs-broadcast-rights-in-1961 |date=November 5, 2019 }}, ''SBNation'', Larry Granillo, August 29, 2013.  In the 1961 season, the new Washington Senators received $300,000 for TV and radio broadcast rights, whereas the Minnesota Twins (old Senators) received $550,000 for the broadcast rights.  Please see chart.</ref>

The American League opposed the move at first, but in 1960 a deal was reached. Major League Baseball agreed to let Griffith move his team to the Minneapolis-St. Paul region and allowed a new [[Texas Rangers (baseball)|Senators]] team to be formed in Washington for the 1961 season.<ref>{{cite web|title=Texas Rangers on Baseball Almanac|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/rang.shtml|access-date=August 14, 2012|publisher=Baseball-almanac.com|archive-date=November 21, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141121100722/http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/rang.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref>

Asked nearly two decades later why he moved the team, Griffith replied, "I'll tell you why we came to Minnesota, it was when I found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don't go to ball games, but they'll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it'll scare you to death. It's unbelievable. We came here because you've got good, hard-working, white people here."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2021/09/the-short-history-of-the-minnesota-twins-calvin-griffith-memorial/ |title=The short history of the Minnesota Twins' Calvin Griffith memorial |website=MinnPost.com |date=September 20, 2021 |access-date=November 6, 2022 |archive-date=September 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927031212/https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2021/09/the-short-history-of-the-minnesota-twins-calvin-griffith-memorial/ |url-status=live }}</ref>