Quote:
Originally Posted by Buster Cherry
The Great Depression killed the Washington Senators much as it did the Philadelphia A's. By the late 1920's Clark Griffith had built a fine ballclub though it was overshadowed by the powerhouse A's and Yankees teams. Finally, in 1933, the Senators broke through and won the AL pennant over an aging Yankee team and an A's team that was just beginning its fire sale of players. The Senators lost the World Series to the Giants but many analysts felt that they could dominate the AL for the next few years. There was only one problem: Clark Griffith's only source of income was his baseball club and with attendance down because of the Depression he couldn't afford to keep his better players. Like Connie Mack in Philadelphia, he sold off his stars and the Senators soon plummeted into mediocrity where they remained until leaving town for Minnesota.
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Griffith Stadium was certainly a crucial boon. If it weren't for the Negro League teams, the Redskins, and college football squads renting the facility, the Senators wouldn't be scraping across marginal profits, and might have been forced out long before the domino that was the St. Louis Browns moving into Baltimore and soaking up the Maryland market. Then early Twins greats like Harmon Killebrew never make it to Minnesota, and the ripples continue.
The financial landscape of earlier baseball is simply fascinating. It's easy to look at the reserve clause-era as a more antiquated time, but with less billionaire owners, and more guys like Griffith (who mortgaged his ranch in his efforts to gain controlling interest in the Senators), there was a lot more on the line.