I recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the Rangers-Nationals’ three-game series. It is always an interesting time when these two teams play because the Rangers moved to Texas from Washington in 1971, leaving the nation’s capital without a major league team for 34 years.
Before I got to the stadium, I did a nostalgic tour of the city where I lived for more than 30 years. I drove to RFK Stadium and reminisced about going to my first Major League Baseball game there in 1970, to see the Washington Senators play the Detroit Tigers. Little did I know then that the Senators would one day become the Texas Rangers. Sadly, the 64-year-old stadium is set for demolition.
Following my drive-by tour of RFK, I headed to Nationals Park to pick up my media credential. Wearing my Washington Senators shirt as I walked to the stadium, I got a few fist bumps and thumbs up from old-timers like myself who fondly remember the team.
Once inside the stadium, I headed to the field as the Nationals were taking batting practice. I quickly approached former Ranger Nathaniel Lowe. He greeted me and other members of the Texas media with a firm handshake and a hug. I asked him if he was disappointed that there is no Nathan Lowe Street in Washington like there is in Arlington. “Heck yes,” he said with a smile. He added that one of the first things he did when he learned of his trade to Washington was to check the schedule to see when his new team would be playing the Rangers. Like in Arlington, Lowe has quickly become a fan favorite in Washington.
Following my visit with Lowe, I went to the Rangers dugout for manager Bruce Bochy’s pregame media availability. The Rangers skipper was not in the best of moods. The team had arrived late from Tampa in the early morning hours after having been swept by the Rays, losing the last two games with some very sloppy play. “It’s frustrating,” Bochy said.
After addressing a few questions about the team’s defensive and offensive performances of late, he turned his attention to Washington. “I like coming here,” he said.
Bochy, the son of an Army sergeant, said he saw his first Major League game at RFK Stadium in 1966. He was 10 years old, and he sat in the upper deck along the third-base line. He recalled seeing Mickey Mantle hit a home run that day. The future Hall of Fame manager who ranks sixth on the all-time wins list among MLB managers, with more than 2,200 wins, spoke about RFK Stadium as the place where his passion for baseball really began. His father would accompany him to many of the games and would talk to hm about the strategic aspects of the game.
Following his media talk, I showed him a picture of a rundown RFK Stadium. Bochy just shook his head as he took a long look at the Senators’ and Nationals’ home from 2005 to 2007.
The Nationals’ new park, which opened in 2008, is a state-of-the-art baseball facility on South Capital Street, which is about five miles from RFK’s East Capitol location.
In the first of the three-game weekend series, Bochy called on former Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin to get the Rangers back on the win column. Corbin, who got a nice applause from the Nats fans, was superb in his return to D.C., pitching a complete game. Unfortunately, the Rangers lost 2-0 as the offense was once again shut out.
The following day, as Bochy was sitting in the Rangers dugout, he asked out loud, “How can we get some runs?” Well, someone must have said something because the Rangers scored five runs and shut out the Nats under Rangers ace Jacob deGrom, who won his sixth game while striking out eight.
The Rangers won the following day 4-2. The bottom of the ninth inning featured the faceoff I was hoping would take place. Lowe came to the plate against reliever Robert Garcia, the Nationals player for whom Lowe was traded in the off-season.
Lowe won the faceoff as he hit a double off a Garcia fast ball. Garcia, however, got the final out and preserved the Rangers’ victory as Lowe was stranded at second base.
It was a long afternoon as the game was delayed an hour and 40 minutes because of heavy rains. That is something we in the Texas media do not miss. We don’t have rain delays at Globe Life Field.
The Rangers now look to extend their two-game winning streak as they head to Minnesota. Ironically, it was Minnesota where the original Washington Senators moved to in 1961 to become the Minnesota Twins. The Senators were replaced that year with an expansion team also named the Senators, who would play in the newly constructed ballpark named D.C. Stadium, later changing its name to RFK.
