There were no interruptions this time. The fans stayed in their seats, all the anger and sadness of that long-ago night at RFK Stadium replaced by the heightened expectations of a new stadium and a brighter future.
The Washington Senators ceased to exist on Sept. 30, 1971, their final home game a 9-0 forfeit to the New York Yankees when thousands of fans stormed the field in protest with two outs in the ninth inning. The next year the team was in Texas and Washington, D.C. began a 33-year drought without a baseball team to call its own until the Nationals finally arrived at RFK in 2005.
“We knew something was going to happen that night,” said Dick Bosman, the starting pitcher for that final Senators game and the 1969 AL ERA winner with a 2.19 mark. “It was nuts and a sad way to leave a place with so many great memories for all of us. But never in a million years did we think it would take 33 years to get another team here.”
Bosman and several old Senators teammates returned for the final baseball game at RFK on Sunday. There was slugger Frank Howard, still formidable at 71 years old, standing at third base with the painted white seats that mark his legendary home runs at RFK looming above him in the upper deck.
“This has been such a great ballpark over the years,” said Howard, who blasted 237 home runs in seven years with Washington. “This is a historical city, a city with a great baseball tradition. But these players and these fans deserve the brand-new ballpark they’re going to get.”
The mood was jovial in the regular-season home finale against the Phillies. Nothing like the bitterness directed at Senators owner Bob Short on the eve of the Senators’ departure in 1971, where signs throughout the stadium cursed his name. Howard received a huge ovation as he walked to third base during the pre-game ceremony. Bosman earned the same after tossing the ceremonial opening pitch. Unlike the1971 forfeit, the Nats’ late-inning lead stayed intact to the end. The crowd was good for one final explosion after closer Chad Cordero turned out the lights with a ninth-inning strikeout of Wes Helms. Baseball at RFK Stadium was finished forever but baseball in D.C. is just beginning again.
“There’s a lot of nostalgia. Almost everything at this stadium looks exactly like it did in 1971,” said Bosman. “I’m happy for the players that they’ll have a great new home, and for the fans, too. But, for us old guys, we needed to be here one last time. This is closure for all of us.”
