Left
Field - 388 ft
Left-Center - 360 ft
Center Field - 421 ft
Right-Center - 373 ft
Right Field - 320 ft
Backstop - 61 ft
An earlier wooden baseball park that stood on the site, National
Park (also called American League Park), was built in 1891, was destroyed by a fire
during spring training on March 17, 1911, and
replaced by a steel and concrete structure, also called National Park; it
was renamed for Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith in 1920. The
stadium was home to the American League Senators from 1911 to 1960, and an
expansion team of the same name in 1961. It served as a part-time home for
the Negro League team called the Homestead Grays during the 1930s and 40s.
It was also home to the Washington Redskins of the National Football
League from the time they transferred from Boston in 1937 through the 1960
season.
Fly
to the site of Griffith Stadium!
If you have Google
Earth installed, click here
to be "flown" to the site of the Griffith Stadium. Of
course the stadium is no longer there, but you can see the
neighborhood. (If you do not have it installed, get
it from Google. It allows you to view virtually anywhere on
Earth in 3D using satellite imagery.)
William Howard Taft began the tradition of presidents throwing out the
ceremonial first pitch of the baseball season at Griffith Stadium. A big
baseball fan (in more ways than one), legend has it that he also
inadvertently inaugurated the tradition of the Seventh-inning stretch.
The stadium was laid out at an unusual angle within its block in the
Washington street grid. Thus, it was over 400 feet down the left field
line to the bleachers (though this distance was shortened in later years
by the construction of an inner fence). The fence also took an unusual
right-angled jut into right-center field where a large tree and several
apartment buildings stood, due to the unwillingness of the owners of the
tree and those nearby houses to sell to the Nationals owners during
construction of the stadium. The right field fence angled away from the
infield sharply which, in addition to a 30-foot "spite" fence
about 8 feet inside the lower, outer wall, meant that relatively few home
runs were hit at the stadium.
The distance fences were no problem for sluggers like Josh Gibson,
Mickey Mantle and the Senators' own youngster Harmon Killebrew. Gibson is
reported to have hit baseballs over the left field bleachers twice. Mantle
hit one that was so impressive that someone tried to determine its flight
with some precision, thus popularizing the term "Tape Measure Home
Run".
Griffith Stadium!
That is no optical
illusion - the field really is sloped
downward! This is the second American
League Park in Washington that burned down
in 1910. It is the same exactly location
as the later Griffith Park that was
rebuilt from the rubble of the previous
park. The first American League Park's
stands were moved to this location to
create the second AL Park. This second
park is seen here on May 1, 1906.
Photo
by George Lawrence courtesy of NARA
FIRSTS
at GRIFFITH STADIUM
Game
04/12/1911
Red Sox 5, Senators 8
Umpires
Tommy Connolly, John Mullin
Managers
Jimmy McAleer, Senators
Patsy Donovan, Red Sox
Starting Pitchers
Dolly Gray, Senators
Joe Wood, Red Sox
Ceremonial Pitch
President William Howard Taft
Attendance
16,000 (est.)
Batting
Batter
Larry Gardner (line out)
Hit
Tom Madden (single)
Run
Tom Madden
RBI
Tom Madden
Single
Tom Madden
Double
Joe Wood
Triple
Larry Gardner (04/13/1911)
Home Run
Eddie Collins (05/06/1911)
Grand Slam
Doc Gessler (06/02/1911)
IPHR
Eddie Collins (05/05/1911)
Stolen Base
Clyde Milan
Sacrifice Hit
Buff Williams
Sacrifice Fly
Eddie Ainsmith (05/04/1911)
Cycle
Bob Meusel (05/07/1921)
Pitching
Win
Dolly Gray
Loss
Joe Wood
Shutout
Tom Hughes (04/18/1911)
Save
N/A
Hit by Pitch
Ed Karger hit Doc Gessler
Wild Pitch
Dolly Gray
Balk
Hippo Vaughn (04/18/1911)
No-Hitter
Bobby Burke (08/08/1931)
Primary
research by Jim Herdman & David Vincent
Courtesy of Retrosheet.
Aside from some championship seasons in the early 1920s and 1930s, the
Senators teams that played at Griffith Stadium were legendarily bad. The
hapless Washington team became the butt of a well-known Vaudeville joke,
"First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League,"
a twist on the famous "Light Horse Harry" Lee eulogy of George
Washington: "First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of
his countrymen."
Supposedly, Senators groundskeepers ensured that it was actually
slightly downhill towards first base in order to give sluggish Senators
players an extra step.
In the fall of 1961, the Redskins and Senators moved to the newly built
D.C. Stadium (which was
re-named R.F.K. Stadium in 1968). Griffith Stadium was demolished in 1965
and Howard University Hospital now stands on the site.
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