To the Editor:
The article entitled "Is Baseball Right for Northern Virginia?" which appeared in the [Feb. 27-March 5 issue of Centre View] was nicely done, for the most part. However, I must point out a blatantly erroneous statement that tells me that whoever authored it lacks knowledge of and clearly failed to do the appropriate research of the historical records of the Washington Senators.
I refer you to the sentence in the caption below the vintage photo of the 1924 Senators which reads, "After 1924, the Senators rarely left the bottom of the American League standings." Nothing could be further from the truth than this statement! The Senators did not end up at the bottom of the American League standings until some 20 years later, in 1944. (Interestingly, the Senators placed second in both 1943 and 1945.) The Senators hit bottom again in 1949, 1955 and 1957-59 before taking off for Minnesota after the 1960 season — just when they were on the verge of being good again. (Minnesota was first in 1965, with many of our departed Senators making up the guts of this team!)
Also, 1924 was not the only year that Washington won the American League pennant; Washington also won in 1925 and 1933 (but lost the World Series both times). FYI, three teams dominated the American League during the decade 1924-1933. The N.Y. Yankees (with Ruth and Gehrig) won four pennants and 926 A.L. games, the Philadelphia Athletics (managed by the legendary Connie Mack, who was a catcher with Washington in the late 1880s) won three pennants and 917 A.L. games, and our Senators won three pennants and 878 A.L. games — per the baseball encyclopedia that I used for my research.
This causes me to wonder how much of the other information contained in David Harrison's article is inaccurate!
Val Kehl
John Charles Landing
Centreville