Lou Norbeck, Ellicott City, MD -- Jan 09, 2007 15:36 PM
1 visit(s). My rating: 5
In 1961, I saw a game between my Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Senators. I was ten-years-old and in the company of my Little League teammates,the Fort Meade Falcons. Included among the Falcons was Elvis Presley's brother-in-law to be, Pricila's brother, Bobby Belieu. We sat on the thirdbase side under the protection of a roof. The stadium, at that time, didn't impress me nearly as much the Orioles home, Memorial Stadium. I do remember the Orioles won the game, a door kept popping open in the outfield that had to be slammed shut by groundskeepers and the scoreboard was manual and men actually peared out of the open windows where later inning scores would be displayed. Thanks for the memories.

Lou Norbeck, Ellicott City, MD -- Jan 09, 2007 15:37 PM
1 visit(s). My rating: 7
In 1961, I saw a game between my Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Senators. I was ten-years-old and in the company of my Little League teammates,the Fort Meade Falcons. Included among the Falcons was Elvis Presley's brother-in-law to be, Pricila's brother, Bobby Belieu. We sat on the thirdbase side under the protection of a roof. The stadium, at that time, didn't impress me nearly as much the Orioles home, Memorial Stadium. I do remember the Orioles won the game, a door kept popping open in the outfield that had to be slammed shut by groundskeepers and the scoreboard was manual and men actually peered out of the open windows where later inning scores would be displayed. Thanks for the memories. Lou Norbeck

John Shaeffer, Edinburg, VA -- May 28, 2007 16:02 PM
6 visit(s). My rating: 7
There was a Wonder Bread plant near the ballpark on Florida Ave. in the 50's and you could smell the bread baking. You could take streetcars to the stadium. First game I went to, Ted Williams hit a long home run right after my dad told me he was the greatest hitter in baseball--I guess it was proof. I sat in those bleachers mentioned in the article a few times out in LF and that was a long way out there. In August in the heat and humidity of DC it could test your meddle as a fan of a pretty bad team--but it was still fun to see sluggers like Roy Sievers and Jim Lemon and later Harmon Killebrew. Sitting in the upper deck was fun as a kid along the left field line. The team would be behind and they wouldn't do the wave. Fans would try to hit cops on the field on the top of their hats with cups full of beer or soda--there was always something entertaining going on :). Some great pitchers I remember: Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos, Dick Hyde. I think Pascual was the best Senator pitcher of the late Griffith era--he won 17 games in 1959 with a BAD team. He later ptiched for the Twins in the World Series in 1965 against the Dodgers and won one of his starts.

Wes K, Franklin, TN -- Oct 04, 2007 14:19 PM
6 visit(s). My rating: 6
My uncle was a major league scout, and I accompanied him to most of the parks during the summers. I remember watching the old Senators play here in the late 1950's up to just before they moved to Minnesota. Here is what I remember about this park: 1. It smelled funny, sort of like skunky beer. 2. The bathrooms were rather dirty. 3. The distances shown in the diagram were not the way the park was laid out. I guess because Harmon Killebrew, Roy Sievers, and Jim Lemon were there, they brought in the left field fence. I think it was only 350 down the line when I saw them play. 4. They had the prettiest ice cream concessionaire around. I always called her Paulette, because she looked like Paulette Goddard. I never knew her real name. The right field wall looked different also. I think they brought in the deep right field wall some; it wasn't a straight line all the way across.

Keith Brescia, Falls Church, VA -- Dec 01, 2007 21:18 PM
2 visit(s). My rating: 7
This has been a nice nostalgia trip for me, having attended two games at Griffith Stadium around 1960 as an impressionable 12-year-old. Harmon Killebrew hit monster shots deep into the bleachers in both games. Being relatively close to the field, even in the upper deck behind first base, was a nice contrast with the greater setback at the newer parks in later years. From my child's point of view the place was big but not overpoweringly so. In its quirky way it remains my sentimental favorite of all the major league ballparks I have visited. I saw the oddly shaped right-center corner come into play twice in the same game. With a runner on first, old Elmer Valo hit one into the gap that bounced into the bullpen for a ground rule double, stranding the runner at third. Later, light-hitting Reno Bertoia hit one to the same place but the ball stayed in play, and he legged it out for an inside-the-park homer. Thanks for the memories.

Dan Hermann, Banning, CA -- Jan 10, 2008 17:52 PM
2 visit(s). My rating: 3
I took our nine year old son to a game in 1961. We got seats behind one of the many posts, not surprisingly, but right adjacent to third base. The Senators had just acquired Chuck Hinton from Cleveland, I believe. Our main memories were: Chuck coming into third base and rounding it with his body leaning to a 45 degree angle to maintain his speed as he touched the bag; Bennie Daniels pitching, not too well, but an ardent fan of his continually yelling "Strike the bum out Bennie." We also learned at that game that hot dogs were "...nutrutious and delicious.." from an insistent hot dog vendor. We followed the Senators to DC Stadium, as it was called in those days. Later in the sixties we saw the third iteration of the Senators, managed by Ted Williams with the main attraction being the pitching of Detroit's former thirty something game winner, Denny McClain. We also saw the team move to Texas after seeing the Minnesota Twins being "born". As a note of historical interest, I went to a Washington Nationals game at Petco Park in San Diego in the Spring of 2007 with two young Nationals fans. They were astonished to learn the Senators were in the American League for many years! (

Jack Toomey, Poolesville, MD -- Sep 15, 2008 17:20 PM
10 visit(s). My rating: 5
My first recollection of Griffith Stadium was when I was in about the fourth grade when my father used to take me to George Washington Univ. and Catholic League high school football games that were played usually on Friday nights. St. John's, John Carroll, and Gonzaga would play at least half of their games there. Senators games were amazing because there was nothing like the sight of that green grass when you walked up the first ramp from the Georgia Avenue side of the stadium and could peer between the lower and upper decks. Of course when you approached the stadium you were alerted because of the smell of baking bread from the Wonder Bread factory which was just up the street. When I got a little older I was allowed to explore the stadium on my own and was able to discover some of the more secret sections of the stadium. The visiting baseball team did not have a bathroom in the bullpen so they had to use the bathroom under the left field grandstand. It was a good place to hang out between innings to get autographs. I am over my word limit so I will try to add more later.

Jack Toomey, Poolesville, MD -- Sep 16, 2008 11:43 AM
10 visit(s). My rating: 9
I am going to continue because there is so much to say about this great old stadium. There was a huge oak tree in far centerfield and they had to build the stadium around the tree and the houses on the other side of the wall because the property owner wouldn't sell his property. It was into this tree that Musial and Williams hit homers during the '56 All-Star game. The right field wall was a huge green structure that had a tin surface and balls banging off that wall could be heard anywhere in the park. The Senators bullpen was in far right-center field and after the game I sometimes just wandered out into the outfield and walked around and a few times climbed into the bullpen to see what the players had left around. I also got into the scoreboard which was inside the right field wall and helped the scoreboard operator put away his numbers into a cardboard box.

ken whitaker, Falls Church, VA -- Sep 16, 2008 12:10 PM
10 visit(s). My rating: 5
Griffith Stadium was the first major league park that I ever saw a game in. I first went with my Dad, my Mom might have been there, in 1954. Until it closed in 1961 I was there at least 10 times a year. My Dad shared season tickets with his Uncle and so we went quite often. The highlight for me was the 1956 All Star Game. My Great Uncle, who was a Judge, had great seats on the third base side. They were box seats right behind the National League dugout. We sat within 25 feet of Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Roy Campanella and Stan Musial. The most impressive was Ted Kluszewski. He came out into the on deck circle with his sleeves cut off and the biggest biceps in the history of the world to a ten year old boy. He had four bats in each hand and he was swing them around and around. The Nationals won which bothered me because I was an AL fan. It was the greates baseball memory, not only of Griffith Stadium, but in all the years since including world series games that I have attended.

Jack Toomey, Poolesville, MD -- Sep 17, 2008 17:42 PM
10 visit(s). My rating: 9
I will conclude with some recollections of football games. When I was about twelve my parents allowed me to leave our seats at Redskins games about the fourth quarter and I would simply walk down to the lower level and step over the low wall onto the field. I'd watch the rest of the game standing just behind the end zone at the first base end of the field. I never recall anyone asking me why I was there or telling me to get off the field. When a player kicked a field goal I would try to stand behind the goal posts but never touched a ball. After the game was over the Redskin players would run to the first base dugout and I'd try to get chin straps as souveniers and I did get a few. Players would tend to stand around on the field and fans would circle around them listening them talk to players on the other team that they knew. When I was a teenager the Red Sox were in town the last year that the stadium was over. One of my friends began shouting at Ted Williams in right field and the next time up he turned and looked at us and hit a screaming line drive right over our heads. No doubt that it was on purpose. So I could go on and on but I am probably out of space.