I wonder if I am the only one who thinks of Frank Howard every time I hear about “the Nats”
Still remember listening to his home run in the Senators’ last game here like it was yesterday.
Yep, I also think of Frank Howard, Ken McMullen, Paul Casanova and those guys, when thinking about the “Nats”.
I recall back in those days, the Washington Post often had headlines about the Washington Senators, and the headline was “Nats lose”, or “Nats snap losing streak”, etc. Calling the team then the “Nats” even though they were officially the Senators.
I heard they did that because “Nats” was easy to fit in a headline, and because the original Washington Senators franchise had officially been the Washington Nationals at one time.
I recall hearing from some old timers, that the nicknames Senators and Nationals were at one time, used interchangeably for the original Washington American League franchise.
‘I recall hearing from some old timers, that the nicknames Senators and Nationals were at one time, used interchangeably for the original Washington American League franchise.’
a lot of old timers also used to say ‘Washington-first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League...’