Griffith Stadium
Griffith Stadium was a baseball stadium that stood in Washington, DC from 1911-1965, at the corner of Georgia Avenue and W Street, NW. An earlier wooden baseball stadium that stood on the site, built in 1891, was destroyed by a fire in March, 1911, and replaced by the steel and concrete Griffith Stadium. The stadium was home to the Washington Senators of the American League from 1911-1960, and an expansion team of the same name in 1961.
It was at Griffith Stadium that the tradition of having the President of the United States throw out a ceremonial first pitch before the opening day game was begun by William Howard Taft.
The stadium was shoehorned at an odd angle into the Washington street grid. Thus, it was over 400 feet down the left field line to the bleachers (though this distance was shortened in later years by the construction of an inner fence). The fence also took an odd jut into right-center field where a large tree stood, due to the unwillingness of the owner of the tree and nearby house to sell to owner Clark Griffith during construction of the stadium. The right field fence curved away from the infield sharply which, in addition to a 30-foot fence, meant that relatively few home runs were hit at the stadium.
The Senators teams that played at Griffith stadium were legendarily bad, leading one wag to coin the phrase 'First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.' Supposedly, Senators groundskeepers ensured that it was actually slightly downhill towards first base in order to give sluggish Senators players an extra step.
The stadium was demolished in 1965. Howard University Hospital now stands on the site.
