Griffith Stadium

Griffith Stadium stood in Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1965, between Georgia Avenue and 5th Street (left field), and between W Street and Florida Avenue NW.

The site was once home to a wooden baseball park. Built in 1891, it was called Boundary Field, or National Park after the team that played there: the Washington Senators/Nationals. It was destroyed by a fire in 1911.

It was replaced by a steel and concrete structure, at first called National Park and then American League Park; it was renamed Clark Griffith Stadium for Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith in 1923. The stadium was home to the American League Senators from through 1960, and to an expansion team of the same name for their first season in .

The venue hosted the All-Star Game in 1937 and 1956 and World Series games in 1924, 1925, and 1933. It served as home for the Negro league Homestead Grays during the 1940s, when it hosted the Negro World Series in 1943 and 1944. Griffith was also home to the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) for 24 seasons, from the time they transferred from Boston in 1937 through the 1960 season.

The ballpark was demolished in 1965; the site is now occupied by Howard University Hospital.

Early history

On March 17, 1911, Boundary Field, also known as National Park and American League Park (II), was destroyed by a fire started by a plumber's blowtorch. This left the owners of the Washington Senators in a difficult situation, since spring training had already begun and opening day was less than a month away. Thomas C. Noyes, president of the Senators, gained approval from the club's board of directors to build a new ballpark with a steel grandstand on the same site as Boundary Field. The quick construction of the ballpark was reported by The Washington Post: "Day and night the chanting of the negro laborers has been heard in the vicinity, like Aladdin's palace, the structure rose as if by magic." Construction of Griffith Stadium continued while the Senators were on the road, and was not completed until July 24, 1911.

Field design

thumb|Right field seats and row houses with "bootleg bleachers" before the high fence was installed

The wooden ballpark had been laid out with home plate through second base pointing eastward. The new ballpark had the diamond rotated so that home plate through second base pointed southeast. The outfield area was also expanded significantly, especially in left field.

The stadium was laid out at an angle within its block in the Washington street grid. Thus it was over down the left field line (east) 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 five houses stood, due to the unwillingness of the owners of the tree and houses to sell to the Senators' owners during construction of the stadium.

The right-field fence angled away from the infield sharply, which, in addition to a fence (to block the view from surrounding buildings) about inside the lower, outer wall, meant that relatively few home runs were hit at the stadium. The field's orientation was unorthodox, as center field was east-southeast of home plate, which made for difficult visibility for the fielders in the late afternoon sun; recommended alignment is east-northeast. The elevation of the natural grass playing field was approximately above sea level.

The Senators' groundskeepers maintained a downhill slope from home plate to first base, supposedly to help accelerate slow Washington batters. However, Griffith's groundskeepers were still adept at keeping a fine sod field that was "compared to that of the best golf courses." This was in sharp contrast to the unkempt field that can be seen in photographs of Griffith prior to 1923. At one point in his youth, future MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn was the operator of the scoreboard. The new seating came from the complete rebuilding of the left-field grandstand into a double-decked tier. The new upper section was wider than the old, resulting in a roofline that was considerably higher than the roof of the main grandstand, leaving a visible gap between the two. At that point the wooden left-field bleachers were also replaced by a large concrete deck that ran from the foul pole across left field and into center field. The first-base pavilion remained single-decked. The first attempt at a high wall was constructed across right field.

thumb|Concrete bleachers in background as [[Ty Cobb slides into third base in 1924]]

By the time of the 1925 World Series the right field pavilion had also been double-decked, and the angling right field wall and its scoreboard were reconstructed to align with the low right field wall, about inside of it. This also resulted in the unique inward-pointing 90° angle in center field. Both versions of the tall fence had the effect of keeping the neighbors in the adjacent row houses from watching the games for free.

Lights were installed for the 1941 season. The Senators played their first home night game on May 28.

The right-field fence was originally covered in various billboard advertisements, but in later years was painted a solid dark green. A bullpen area was built in right center field behind a short fence, providing a new target for batters. In the mid-1950s, an inner fence was erected across left and center field, to reduce the home run distances by . This inner fence stayed in place through the ballpark's final season, 1961. By 1961, the temporary left-field bleachers had been removed.

Dimensions

Once the large left-field bleacher was completed, the outfield dimensions were fairly well set, but there were tweaks from time to time.

The left field distance was reported as as late as winter 1936-1937, but that was misleading. The left field foul line stopped at the corner of the box seat railing, while fair territory extended more than 40 feet to the bleacher wall. After some reconfiguration, the line went all the way to the bleacher wall, and in winter 1937-1938 was reported as . By spring of 1943, that figure had been revised to and posted as such.

Center field was generally reported as , but there was some vagueness about preciscely where that 426 was measured to. The actual straightaway center field spot was never marked.
The center field "point", to the right of straightaway center, and where the flagpole was located, was reported as or .
The right field foul line was typically reported as .

Every so often, the club would announce plans to shrink the left field area somewhat, to give their sluggers a better chance, and to increase interest among the fans, but very little came of that discussion while Clark Griffith owned the team. His son Calvin Griffith pushed for it, but Clark, a former pitcher, generally resisted. They made an attempt in 1950: The left field area was reduced by , from to on the foul line and from to in left-center. This change lasted only until May 8. The opposing teams had hit five home runs while the Senators had hit only one, so the change was quickly reverted. Changing field dimensions mid-season was permitted at the time.

The idea was discussed again in the winter of 1952-1953, but nothing was done.

Clark died in October 1955. Calvin inherited the club, and immediately took the opportunity to finally do something about the left field area. Within a month, reduction of the left field area was announced.

The first step was to install a fenced-in bullpen at the end of the left field line. This reduced the distance from to . This came just in time to benefit their new young sluggers Roy Sievers, Harmon Killebrew and Jim Lemon.

At that time, the club determined that the right field marker of was incorrect, and revised it to .

For the 1956 season, the Senators revived the 1950 plan, installing several rows of seats across left field. This reduced left field to and left-center to .

For the final season, 1961, the inner fences and stands were removed except for the left field corner bullpen. The final left field distance was and center field was reported as .

Photos of the ballpark during the 1940s and 1950s, along with baseball guide information, reveal the various other distance markers:

- left center field angle
Direct center field remained unmarked
- center field "point"
- left corner of bullpen
- right corner of bullpen / left of scoreboard (unmarked)
- right of scoreboard
- right field foul line

A presidential destination

Every president of the United States from William Howard Taft to John F. Kennedy threw a ceremonial first pitch at least once at Griffith. The Senators even constructed a special presidential box near the first-base dugout for the annual ritual.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was a good friend of Clark Griffith, and had attended games at the stadium since his days as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the 1910s. When FDR returned to Washington in 1933 as president, Griffith visited the White House early every season to give Roosevelt season passes; he also constructed a special ramp at the ballpark that accommodated the president's special mobility needs after his bout with polio in 1921. The distant fences were no problem for sluggers like Josh Gibson, Mickey Mantle, and the Senators' own youngster Harmon Killebrew. There have been only three reported instances of a player hitting a home run over the left field bleachers: Mantle once and Gibson twice. Clark Griffith once said that Gibson hit more home runs into Griffith Stadium's distant left-field bleachers than the entire American League.

On April 17, 1953, Mantle hit a home run off Chuck Stobbs that was so impressive that someone tried to determine its flight with some accuracy, thus popularizing the term "tape measure home run". It was alleged to be , although it bounced off the top of the back wall of the bleachers, adding some distance to its flight path. It was believed to be the 2nd longest home run ever hit at the time.

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 Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee eulogy of George Washington: "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen" (a similar phrasing was once used for the St. Louis Browns: "First in shoes, first in booze, and last in the American League.")

Only one Washington, D.C., public high school baseball player ever hit a home run over the 30-foot-high "green monster–like" right field wall at Griffith Stadium—Bill Harrison of Coolidge High School in 1952.

In 1915, Joseph P. Derby hit a home run off the right field wall, and became the only known amateur baseball player believed to hit a ball completely out of Washington's Griffith Stadium.

The stadium was still called Griffith Stadium in 1961, even though team owner Calvin Griffith had moved the original Senators club to the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis–St. Paul (becoming the Minnesota Twins), to be replaced in Washington by a new expansion team, also called the Senators (now the Texas Rangers).

Football

thumb|left|[[Georgetown Hoyas versus the Quantico Marines at Griffith Stadium, 1923]]

Griffith Stadium hosted numerous football events before the Redskins moved there in 1937. One major reason for the stadium's early-1920s expansion was that Clark Griffith had envisioned the stadium hosting the annual Army–Navy Game, played every December.

Other events

Griffith Stadium was home to many events other than baseball and football. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League played games there during the league's existence. Over 180 boxing matches were held at the ballpark, including fights by Joe Louis. On July 23, 1942, a "battle of music" was held at Griffith between musicians Louis Armstrong and Charlie Barnet. Some of the 18,000 fans in attendance began to dance on the field in front of the bandstand. Spectators who remained in their seats complained that they could not see. When the police attempted to control the situation by stopping the music, a riot broke out, with some minor injuries and several teenagers being hauled away by the police.

Scrap metal salvage rallies were held at least once at the stadium during World War II, where people would bring scrap metal to the ballpark to be melted and made into steel for new weapons. Griffith was also the home to public school events, church revivals, public meetings, and annual ROTC drill competitions. Billy Graham held a crusade at Griffith in 1960, preaching from a platform erected near second base. Two choir stands, each accommodating 500 singers, were set up along the foul lines. Gospel's first superstar, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, was married in Griffith Stadium in 1951 – in what was a legally binding PR stunt – in front of some 20,000 paying guests.

The 1958 musical film Damn Yankees was set at Griffith Stadium, with a number of establishing shots showing the old ballpark. Details specific to the film were mostly filmed at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field.

thumb|[[Babe Ruth after being knocked unconscious during a 1924 game at Griffith; black fans are visible in the right field grandstand.]]

Status in racial disputes

Griffith Stadium was located in LeDroit Park, a historically black area of Washington since the Civil War. The neighborhood was home to many black working-class people, but also a class of young professional African-American "elites" including Langston Hughes. Duke Ellington worked at Griffith selling hot dogs during his childhood. It would be five more years, along with government intervention, before the Redskins finally began employing black players, the last NFL team to do so.

Final years

thumb|[[Howard University Hospital<br>now occupies the stadium site.]]

In 1955, longtime Senators owner Clark Griffith died, and his nephew, Calvin Griffith, took over. Fewer and fewer fans were coming to the ballpark, due in large part to the St. Louis Browns' move to Baltimore in 1954, which meant Baltimoreans no longer had to come to Washington to see games.

thumb|left|A marker indicates the location of Griffith Stadium's home plate inside [[Howard University Hospital.]]

The American League opposed a move at first, but agreed under the condition that an expansion team, also named the Senators, would come to Washington, beginning in 1961. The original Senators moved to Minnesota, and the new Senators played at Griffith in 1961. However, in 1962, the Senators moved to the new D.C. Stadium, joining the Redskins, who had moved there a year before. The final baseball game at Griffith Stadium was played on September 21, 1961, before a crowd of only 1,498 fans.

Griffith Stadium now had no tenants, and sat empty for years, deteriorating, with the field taking on the appearance of a prairie. In 1962, it was leased to Howard University which used it for student parking. In 1963, Congress authorized money for the purchase and clearing of the stadium and in 1964 it sold to Howard University for about $1.5 million. The ballpark was demolished in 1965. Nearly a thousand of the stadium's seats were moved to Tinker Field in Orlando, Florida, at that time the spring training home of the Senators/Twins, where they remained until 2015 when that stadium was also demolished.

The Howard University Hospital now occupies the site. A marker has been placed in the building designating the location of home plate.

The expansion Senators remained in Washington through the 1971 season, then relocated to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and became the Texas Rangers in 1972.

Gallery of presidents at Griffith Stadium

File:TaftAtBallGame1912.jpg|William Howard Taft watching the Senators play the Chicago White Sox, August 13, 1912

File:WWilson1stBall1916.jpg|Woodrow Wilson opens the season at Griffith Stadium, April 20, 1916.

File:HooverAndHardingBallGame1922.jpg|Future President Hoover (l) and current President Harding and wives, 1922

File:CoolidgeMeetsJohnsonAtGriffith.jpg|Calvin Coolidge gets to meet pitcher Walter Johnson, June 18, 1925.

File:HooverOpenTossCa1929.jpg|Hoover again, now as President. Opening Day, 1929, at Griffith Stadium

File:President Franklin D. Roosevelt Throwing a Baseball at Griffith Stadium, Washington, DC - DPLA - a2e92a2a5529778ffb116d3ebad9918a.jpg|Franklin D. Roosevelt throws the first pitch at Opening Day, April 24, 1934.

File:FDRBallScrambleAt37ASGame.jpg|Players jump for the "first ball", tossed by Roosevelt at the All-Star Game, July 7, 1937.

File:Harry Truman throws first pitch at 1952 Washington Senators season opener.JPG|Harry S. Truman throws out first ball at the season opener, April 15, 1952.

File:Opening Day of 1961 Baseball Season. President Kennedy throws out first ball. (first row) Vice President Johnson... - NARA - 194197.jpg|John F. Kennedy throws out the first ball, Opening Day, April 10, 1961.

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References

Sources

Green Cathedrals, by Phil Lowry.
Lost Ballparks, by Lawrence Ritter.
Williams, Paul K. Greater U Street. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2002.
The Ballparks, by Bill Shannon & George Kalinsky, 1975. .