6 N a t i o n a l s A CAPITAL IDEA etween 1776 and 1790 the United States capital circulated among the cities of Philadelphia Baltimore York Princeton Annapolis Trenton and New York Finally in 1790 the U S Congress decided the country needed a permanent capital that was not part of any one state President George Washington a surveyor by trade carved out a diamond-shaped district that included parts of Maryland and Virginia After 10 years of planning and building the new capital was ready for occupancy in 1800 At the suggestion of then president John Adams the city was named Washington in honor of the former president who had died the year before As the U S government grew so did Washington By 1900 it was the country’s 15th-largest city with a population nearing 280,000 So it seemed logical that when professional baseball’s American League AL was formed in 1901 a franchise would be established in Washington Management debated whether to name the team the Senators or the Nationals before settling on Senators That franchise B
Washington D C features numerous distinctive landmarks including the Washington Monument at left and the Lincoln Memorial below
ALL-TIME NATIONALS N a t i o n a l s 8 Washington Nationals (cid:39)(cid:32)(cid:43)(cid:26)(cid:31)(cid:28)(cid:41)(cid:1)(cid:76)(cid:1)STEVE ROGERS A crafty right-handed starter Rogers is widely regarded as the best pitcher in Expos history A late bloomer he didn’t even play baseball until his senior year in high school Rogers spent his entire 13-year career with the Expos winning 158 games While he was never able to win 20 games in a single season he did win 19 games in 1982 and posted winning records in 8 seasons Rogers will forever be remembered as the man who gave up the series-winning homer to the Los Angeles Dodgers Rick Monday in the 1981 NL Championship Series NLCS but his accomplishments as an Expos player spoke for themselves STATS Expos seasons 1973 85 Height 6-foot-1 Weight 182 (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:17)(cid:18)(cid:25)(cid:0)(cid:67)(cid:79)(cid:77)(cid:80)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:84)(cid:69)(cid:0)(cid:71)(cid:65)(cid:77)(cid:69)(cid:83) (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:19)(cid:23)(cid:0)(cid:67)(cid:79)(cid:77)(cid:80)(cid:76)(cid:69)(cid:84)(cid:69)(cid:13)(cid:71)(cid:65)(cid:77)(cid:69)(cid:0)(cid:83)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:84)(cid:79)(cid:85)(cid:84)(cid:83) (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:17)(cid:21)(cid:24)(cid:110)(cid:17)(cid:21)(cid:18)(cid:0)(cid:67)(cid:65)(cid:82)(cid:69)(cid:69)(cid:82)(cid:0)(cid:82)(cid:69)(cid:67)(cid:79)(cid:82)(cid:68) (cid:115)(cid:0)(cid:21)(cid:13)(cid:84)(cid:73)(cid:77)(cid:69)(cid:0)(cid:33)(cid:76)(cid:76)(cid:13)(cid:51)(cid:84)(cid:65)(cid:82) steve rogers Pitcher
eventually moved to Minnesota and was replaced by another Senators club that later relocated to Texas Washington fans were without a home team from 1972 until 2004 when the owners of the Montreal Expos decided to relocate their team south of the Canadian border and rename it the Nationals B y the time the Nationals took the field in Washington the Expos had already built a 36-season history in Montreal The club was established as part of Major League Baseball’s expansion in 1969 and took its name from an impressive world’s fair held two years earlier in Montreal the Exposition or Expo for short The club became an immediate hit with Montreal fans most of whom spoke French who proudly called the Expos players Nos Amours which is French for our beloveds The Expos built their first roster mostly with young unknowns and aging veterans including starting pitchers Dan McGinn and Bill Stoneman third baseman Jose Coco Laboy and second baseman Gary Sutherland Commanding this ragtag roster was veteran skipper Gene Mauch known as the Little General Mauch was a disciplined N a t i o n a l s 9
