The Day Baseball Left the Nation's Capital
As the contraction scenario becomes less plausible, the Expos finish off what is probably their final season in Montreal. More than likely the Expos will move, and rumors place them in Washington, DC and RFK Stadium for 2003, which hasn't been home to a MLB franchise since the Senators last played on September 30, 1971 in one of the more infamous games in the annals of baseball history.
Only 10 days earlier, reviled Senators owner Bob Short had received permission from American League owners to relocate his franchise. He chose Arlington Texas, after the town's mayor offered Short an up-front $8 million for the TV rights for a period of years.
Although the Senators hadn't won a pennant since 1933, their fans were not happy. In the words of famed Washington Post columnist Shirley Povich, the team was heading to "Arlington, Tex., which, to embittered Washington fans, is some jerk town with the single boast it is equidistant from Dallas and Fort Worth."
And so on September 30, angry Senators fans showed up to witness the final game in Senators franchise history against the Yankees. Fearing the worst, the city of Washington paid for 50 extra police officers to patrol RFK Stadium. It wouldn't be nearly enough.
While a crowd of 14,460 bought tickets, another 4,000 fans barged through the turnstiles without tickets, many carrying large "anti-Short" banners, some of which contained profane language and were later removed by police officers. Another group of fans went a step further, constructing a stuffed dummy that bore a likeness of the Washington owner and hanging him in effigy over a stadium railing.
As for the game, thanks to two home runs from Frank Howard and Tom McGraw's go-ahead eighth-inning single, the Senators had a 7-5 lead with two outs in the ninth inning. But with Horace Clark at bat against Washington left-hander Joe Grzenda, fans stormed the field. As Yankee and Senator players fled for cover, some fans ran directly toward the bases, pulling them out of the ground, spikes and all. Another group climbed the bullpen roof and dismantled the scoreboard. Hundreds more ripped out sods of grass from the playing field.
With the playing surface reduced to shambles and players fearing for their safety, the umpires, headed up by crew chief Jim Honochick, decided to call the game a forfeit and awarded the Yankees a 9-0 victory. As part of baseball rules, all statistics from the game counted in the official day-by-day records, but neither a winning nor a losing pitcher was officially designated. Instead, three men were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
Meanwhile, groundskeepers lifted their shovels under police guard to dig up the pitching rubber. Four other officers stood over home plate. Less than an hour after the game had ended, groundskeepers were taking up the remaining left field turf to make way for two new sections of stands for the NFL's Redskins.
Afterwards, Yankees team president and part owner Michael Burke asked the umps to overturn the forfeit and award the Senators the victory, but American League President Joe Cronin, a former star shortstop for the Senators, said the forfeit, and the Yankees' 9-0 win, would stand and baseball in Washington was no more.
