The Last Hurrah #18: Chicago White Stockings v. Washington Senators 9/28/1903 @ American League Park

Photo Credit: Retro Seasons

By Zane Miller

On Monday, September 28th, 1903, the Chicago White Stockings (now Chicago White Sox) defeated the Washington Senators (now Minnesota Twins) 10-3 in the 1903 season finale for both teams. More pertinent to this article, though, it was the final game in the short-lived history of Washington, DC’s American League Park.

Built just in time for the first season in Washington Senators history and even predating the formation of Major League Baseball, American League Park was a modest facility located in the northeastern portion of the nation’s capital. Even with the wooden grandstands, however, the park could seat over 10,000 fans, a capacity it would meet right away in the team’s debut game against the Baltimore Orioles (of no relation to the modern-day Orioles franchise) on April 29th, 1901.

As the field was constructed around the confines of its location at the corner of Florida Avenue and Trinidad Avenue, the park dimensions were all over the place, ranging from a ludicrously short left field of 290 feet and an exceptionally large center field fence of 424 feet. This arrangement seemed to benefit right-handed batters Mike Grady and Ed Delahanty, who each finished top-five in American League home runs in 1901 and 1902 respectively.

When MLB was officially established for the 1903 season, the Senators came in with two mediocre seasons under their belt. That being said, American League Park would earn the distinction in 1902 of technically having the first-ever public address announcer in pro sports history, as the starting lineups were reported to have been delivered to the crowd over megaphone prior to games. In the 1903 season, however, some players might have preferred to retain their anonymity as the Senators were the worst team in the AL by a wide margin. By season’s end, the hapless Washington club possessed a record of 43-94, a full 17 games behind the second-to-last place team. That team happened to be the Chicago White Stockings, who were wrapping up their one and only MLB season under the White Stockings moniker before officially changing to the White Sox going forward.

Just like the season as a whole, the series was not a pleasant experience for the Senators as the White Stockings took game one 7-4. After a Sunday off-day, the teams returned to American League Park for a Monday doubleheader to close out the inaugural MLB regular season. Curiously, the final game between the teams was apparently scheduled to be on that Tuesday instead, but was moved up a day to make it a doubleheader. I was unable to find a reason why this was done, but nonetheless the first game of the double was an exciting one with Chicago grabbing a 6-5 win in 10 innings.

The second game of the doubleheader saw the Senators bring pitcher Howard Wilson to the mound. 1903 would unfortunately be the only full-time season in Wilson’s major league career, though considering the team he was on he posted respectable numbers, taking seven wins and a 3.31 ERA in 242 innings pitched. For the White Stockings, they would send out pitcher Nick Altrock, just beginning a playing career which would span four different decades. In his limited appearances in 1903, he collected four wins with a 2.15 ERA in 71 innings pitched.

The only newspaper article recapping this game that I could find lasted only one sentence, saying “The second game was easy for the White Sox.” Looking over the box score, I have no reason to disbelieve that assessment as Chicago jumped out to a 7-1 lead midway through the seventh inning. Three different White Stockings had three-hit performances, tallying 15 hits in total to six by the Senators. While it wasn’t all bad for Washington as they were able to scrape a pair of runs across in the bottom half of the seventh, Chicago promptly got three runs back in the eighth on the way to their 10-3 victory.

One of the White Stockings with three hits, third baseman Harry Clark, ended the day with a pair of RBIs, a double and a stolen base, one of five Chicago players to steal a bag. Even Altrock himself got in on the action, stealing a base against his opposing pitcher. On the mound, Altrock went the full nine innings as pitchers did back then, giving up three earned runs on six hits and two walks with a strikeout. Meanwhile, Wilson also pitched a complete game, allowing seven earned runs on 15 hits with three walks and four strikeouts. At the end of the day, though, both teams were probably just looking to turn the page to the 1904 campaign. The upcoming season would not feature American League Park, or at least the American League Park we’ve been covering up to this point.

A couple of miles west of the park, another baseball facility was situated near the Washington city limits. This park was known as Boundary Field, and was not new to the DC baseball fans. In fact, it had hosted an unrelated team also named the Washington Senators in the National League for much of the 1890s. While the AL Senators were intending to use Boundary Field in 1901, the National League stepped in and picked up the lease left behind by the NL Senators, leading the AL Senators to build American League Park instead. With the AL and NL more or less easing tensions and coming together to form MLB, the Senators were allowed to return to Boundary Field in 1904, taking the grandstands from American League Park with them. To further add to the confusion, Boundary Field was later renamed to American League Park, with historians often referring to it as American League Park II.

As for the original American League Park, it remained as an empty plot of land for the next couple of decades, until the Washington Potomacs of the Eastern Colored League began play in 1923. The team utilized the park throughout their inaugural season and part of the 1924 campaign, before relocating mid-season to Wilmington, Delaware. Today, the former facility is occupied by an apartment building and a fire station. The original grandstands were used by American League Park II until they burned down in 1911, inadvertently setting the construction of Griffith Stadium into motion.