After beating the Atlanta Braves today, we head back out on the road for more Interleague play. We’re about to hear a lot about how the Rangers were the “Washington Senators II” during the time they played in DC. As I’ve pointed out a few times, the Rangers are NOT the second Senators. They’re the third team with that moniker (technically the fourth, but more on that in a bit). Most people will tell you the Minnesota Twins were the original Senators, and when they moved out of DC, the Rangers franchise became the second. All of this completely ignores the real original Washington Senators, who played from 1891-1899. While I admit, it wasn’t a major team in the overall scheme of things, it did exist for about a decade. I guess it’s not sexy enough to bring this up, which is why we never hear it.
As long as I’m totally nitpicking here, the 1890’s Washington Senators wasn’t the original Washington Nationals, either. There was a team that played one year – 1884 as the Washington Nationals. But that’s seriously obscure, and since that was a completely different league, I’m not counting them as the first.
To sum this up, I wonder if this will be brought up, too. When the Montreal Expos franchise moved to DC and took on the moniker of the Nationals, they wanted to use the old red “W” cap that our franchise used to wear. Since the Senators team moved here, Tom Hicks still owns the legal rights to the “Washington Senators” name, which includes logos, uniforms, etc.. The Nationals franchise had to pay Hicks money to let them use the cap. Gotta love THAT. Baseball is now feeding off of itself in terms of places it wants to make money. :)
