Washington Senators - The World War II Years (1940-1949)  
   
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      Yr P W L     Yr P W L   Yr P W L               Decade  
      1940 7 64 90     1943 2 84 69   1947 7 64 90               Click  
      1941 6 70 84     1944 8 64 90   1948 7 56 97               on Logo  
      1942 7 62 89     1945 2 87 67   1949 8 50 104                  
                  1946 4 76 78                            
                                                       
   
  Titles: Top Senators Players of the Forties  
  None  
    Pitchers:  
  BallPark:  Dutch Leonard (17.09) -    59  
  Griffith Stadium Mickey Haefner (15.35) -    46  
    Early Wynn (7.74) -    44  
  Team Name: Sid Hudson (5.68) -    38  
  Nationals or Senators  Ray Scarborough (9.28) -    31  
    Walt Masterson (8.05) -    18  
  Owner:  Alex Carrasquel (5.71) -    15  
  Clark Griffith Roger Wolff (5.27) -    15  
    Bobo Newsom (3.06) -    14  
  General Managers: Ken Chase (3.88) -    13  
    Johnny Niggeling (7.21) -    11  
  Managers: Milo Candini (4.05) -   8  
  Bucky Harris (1940-1942)    
  Ossie Bluege (1943-1947) Catchers:  
  Joe Kuhel (1948-1949) Jake Early (4.64) -    30  
    Al Evans (3.97) -    22  
  No Hitters: Rick Ferrell (5.47) -    15  
  None    
    First Basemen:  
  Hall of Famers: Mickey Vernon (9.21) -    52  
  Early Wynn Joe Kuhel (6.29) -    19  
  Rick Ferrell    
    Second Basemen:  
  Rookie of the Year: Jerry Priddy (4.69) -    17  
  None George Myatt (5.42) -    16  
       
  MVP: ShortStop:  
  None Cecil Travis (9.34) -    25  
       
  Notable Events Third Base:  
    Buddy Lewis (14.08) -    38  
  1940 - Clark Griffith had given up trying to field a competitive team. Eddie Yost (0.46) -    10  
  Other than the war years when the rest of the league was depleted    
  down to Washington's level, the Senators were awful with six 89 loss or Outfield:  
  greater seasons during the decade. George Case (12.62) -    70  
    Stan Spence (21.65) -    61  
  1940 - Twenty five year old righthander Sid Hudson joins the club. He Bud Stewart (2.76) -    18  
  had been signed as an amateur free agent at the relatively advanced Gil Coan (- 1.46) -    11  
  age of 23 two years earlier. Sid would be a mainstay of the Washington Indian Bob Johnson (3.08) -    11  
  staff for over a dozen years.    
    Notable Events  
  1941 - The Senators play their first home night game. Clark Griffith    
  sprung for $165K for the lights.  1945 - Clark Griffith blundered in order to turn an extra buck. His team  
    was never a contender, so he decided to end the season a week   
  1942 - Outfielder  Stan Spence, 27, is acquired from Boston in a trade. early to let the football Redskins use Griffith Stadium. The Senators  
  The Red Sox and Senators were regular trading partners in three had to squeeze all of their 154 games into one less week - making for  
  decades (thirties thru fifties). The Sox got the upper hand in most an extremely busy early to mid September. With their schedule   
  of the deals, but not this one, as Spence turns into a good hitter with finished at 87-67, the Senators watched helplessly the last week of  
  power in his tenure with Washington the season as the Tigers caught and passed them. It was the last time  
    that the club contended for a title in Washington.  
  1943 - Leftahnded knuckleballer Mickey Haefner is brought up as a    
  thirty year old rookie. He had started in organized baseball late in 1945 - The Nationals hit only one home run the entire season in  
  life at the age of twenty five. Part of the problem was that no one  Griffith Stadium - and that was an inside the park job by Joe Kuhel.  
  would take a chance on him early on because he was small in stature.    
    1945 - Washington has four knuckleballers in their starting rotation:  
  1944 - Eddie Yost, 17, is a rookie. A good fielding third baseman, he is Dutch Leonard, Mickey Haefner; Roger Wolff and Johnny Niggeling.  
  known as the walking man as he led the league in walks several times. You would think that four knuckleballers in the rotation would be   
  counterproductive as part of the effectiveness of the pitch is it's  
  1945 - Pitcher Bert Shepard appears in a major league game. He had novelty to hitters. However, the Senators almost won the pennant..  
  lost a leg in WW II and had an artificial limb. He gave up one run in five On the other hand, this was 1945 and the hitters weren't very good.  
  and a third innings. The only concession made by the opposition to him Only Leonard and Haefner had success outside of the war years.  
  was that they didn't bunt on him - it would have been extremely bad    
  form for a number of reasons, not the least of which was he came into 1946 - Griffith expands the stadium, adding 4000 seats at a cost  
  a 14-2 game. Luckily, the Red Sox didn't have Leo Durocher or Eddie of another $160K. There's a new scoreboard, elevator for  
  Stanky playing for them, I don't think that they could have resisted  sports writers and press box with a bar. It was a capital investment  
  trying a bunt even against a one legged war hero - all's fair in love and war. and Clark had decided that he'd rather spend on infrastructure than on  
     improving the team - see the 1950's to see how this strategy turned out.   
       
    1948 - In an awful trade, the Senators deal Early Wynn to the Indians.  
  Early would end up winning 300 games and making it to the Hall of Fame  
   Mickey Vernon also went to the Indians while Washington received    
  1B Eddie Robinson and pitcher Joe Haynes who coincidentally was  
     Clark Griffith's brother in law. Griffith was clearly too into running the  
   Senators as a family business at this point.