D.C. starving for return of baseball

Tuesday, April 29, 2003 | 9:12 a.m.

The white seats in RFK Stadium constantly remind Bobby Goldwater, the president and executive director of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, about what the area has been missing for 33 years.

Three in the upper deck, beyond what was once an outfield wall, commemorate where a trio of Frank Howard moonshots landed.

"Seems like they're a million miles from home plate," Goldwater said. "And that was before Mark McGwire and all these other 'stars.' Frank Howard was the great Senator, and RFK continues to preserve those locations."

Howard won American League home run crowns in 1968 and '70, belting 44 each season.

Four pale seats are still situated in the area that once served as the Senators' dugout in the venue that began as D.C. Stadium in 1962 and evolved into Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, after the assassination of the senator in June 1968.

"Where the President always sat for baseball," Goldwater said. "It's certainly our hope that we will be able to have a president -- very soon -- sitting there after throwing out the first pitch."

The team can be called the Senators, the Nationals, or whatever its eventual owner(s), and possibly locals with a new vested interested in the national pastime, is partial to, Goldwater said, but he has his own vision.

Seeing Vladimir Guerrero and Jose Vidro smacking a baseball all around a stadium within view of the monuments and playing the field in caps with a "W" embroidered on them.

"It's what sport they're going to be playing, that's what I'm dedicated to," Goldwater said. "My goal is to give people the opportunity to have that (nickname) discussion. I'd like to think we have a good chance.

"There are some things that are conditions and decisions that we can't control. All we can do is stick to our message and make, what we believe, is a very compelling case, try to demonstrate that this is the right place and the right time for baseball to return to D.C."

Representatives of factions in Northern Virginia and Portland, Ore., also unveiled their plans to have the Expos relocated to their areas in meetings with baseball's relocation committee, chaired by White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, in Phoenix last month.

Anthony A. Williams, mayor of the District, and nearly two dozen government and business leaders joined the D.C. group's presentation via videoconference.

"Representatives from the City Council and government figures have all been working closely with a common goal," Goldwater said. "We were able to demonstrate that, most recently and very directly, with the committee last month. When the committee meets again, we'll have a better understanding of the potential next steps."

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig had vowed to have the issue settled before the White Sox play host to the All-Star Game at U.S. Cellular, formerly Comiskey, Park on July 15, but that seems to have become a soft target date.

Goldwater said it is also possible that Selig & Co. could reach a decision by mid-July but keep it hush until a time of their choosing. Baseball might even decide to keep the Expos in Montreal until more research is completed or to shift it permanently to Puerto Rico.

The Expos are playing a quarter of their home games in San Juan this season.

Each delegation plans to raise approximately $300 million, at least, in public financing during a period of severe budget restrictions, which makes the relocation committee's task even more challenging.

Last week, a group from New Jersey got into the derby late, and schedule conflicts have thwarted face-to-face meetings for the near future. The league must also resolve a legal matter with the former Canadian owners of the Expos who have made collusion charges.

Moreover, Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos has threatened litigation over the infringement on his "territory," which should make league officials laugh.

Edison Field is closer to Dodger Stadium, Yankee Stadium is closer to Shea, Wrigley Field is closer to the ex-Comiskey and Pac Bell Park is closer to Network Associates Coliseum in the Bay Area than Camden Yards would be to Washington's yard.

The choice here is to move the Expos' to D.C., the nation's fifth-largest market that has history on its side.

The memory of the game in the Capitol is rekindled by a handful of old-timers or the scenes of Gomer Pyle and the Sarge treating that young boy to a Senators game at D.C. Stadium on the small screen.

That boy is about ready to celebrate his 50th birthday.

Josh Gibson and the Homestead Grays, of the Negro League, often outdrew the Nationals at Griffith. It was demolished in January 1965, but about 900 of those seats were relocated to Tinker Field in Orlando, Fla.

"The Senators had tremendous history here," Goldwater said. "People love talking about it and reliving it. If you start talking about baseball to someone around here, you better be sure you have some time.

"The older folks, they will have no problem talking, not just about the Senators but the Homestead Grays, in the drop of a hat. I've learned that. You bring up the subject, make sure you have 15 or 20 minutes. Josh Gibson, they remember all those people."

Goldwater made a mark of his own in a variety of capacities of facility management and event organization in 24 years at Madison Square Garden.

In 1998, he was lured to an executive position by Staples Center officials in Los Angeles to help keep that arena booked. Among the projects he keyed was the revival of the Pac-10 basketball tournament.

Goldwater left Staples in November 2000 to run the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, which is responsible for running and maintaining RFK and the D.C. Armory, and for presenting and promoting sports, entertainment and special events in the area.

Returning Major League baseball to the region has involved a rare aspect into his business dealings -- passion.

A Mickey Mantle fan in his youth, Goldwater attended a Yankees-Senators game at then-D.C. Stadium with his father, and relatives from Bethesda, Md., in 1967. He sat two or three seats in from an aisle when a foul ball arched his way.

"It landed in the aisle, then bounced up and away from us," Goldwater said. "Watching it go away was bitterly disappointing. It's a great coincidence that now I run the organization that manages the facility. So I have my own personal memories."

There probably aren't too many residents who remember Washington's baseball heyday in 1924, when, behind the managing of Bucky Harris, the Nationals beat the New York Giants in seven games to win the World Series.

The Nats also won the American League pennant in '25 -- when they lost the Series in seven games to Pittsburgh -- and '33, the latter with Joe Cronin as the shortstop-playing manager.

Walter Johnson was the strikeout king a dozen times between 1910 and '24, tossing a no-hitter on July 1, 1920.

From 1901-56, they were the Nationals. Their nickname was switched to the Senators for the '57 season, then they moved to Minnesota before the '61 season to become the Twins. Before leaving, Harmon Killebrew won a home run title, with 42, in 1959.

An expansion Senators team started in D.C. in '61, suffering 100-loss seasons in each of its first four years. It was moved to Texas, becoming the Rangers, after the '71 season. The last winning team in Washington went 78-76 in 1953.

Longtime fans of the Senators still lament the final game, when many of an RFK Stadium crowd of 14,000 stormed the field as the Senators were beating the Yankees, 7-5, with two outs in the ninth inning.

Two calls for order went unheeded, and the Senators were slapped with a 9-0 defeat by forfeiture.

Should the Expos land in D.C., Goldwater said the plan would be to play in RFK for three years before moving into a modern facility most likely to be constructed at either New York Avenue and North Capitol Street, or on the Anacostia River waterfront.

Goldwater said his mission would remain the same of the Expos don't come, because teams in Tampa Bay, Florida, Kansas City, Detroit and Oakland are all experiencing financial difficulty.

"People are more than ready for the return of Major League baseball to the city and to the Washington market," Goldwater said. "It seems too obvious. We have everything Major League Baseball is looking for, and then some.

"The relationship has to be a partnership between baseball and, hopefully, the District of Columbia, to make sure that everything is in place for a team to succeed, financially and competitively, in every way. I think we are committed to that."

Their home opener last Tuesday drew 36,879. In their next five games, they attracted a total of 40,999, an average occupancy rate of 18 percent in Olympic Stadium.

In 10 games in San Juan, the Expos drew a total of 142,821 fans for an average occupancy rate of 77 percent in Hiram Bithorn Stadium.

A Rhode Island native, Baldelli has 38 hits, one shy of the rookie record that Ichiro Suzuki of Seattle established two years ago. Baldelli can set the mark tonight in Minnesota.

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