Baseball in the District "The Amazing Nationals" 1885

Once again Washignton is out of the major leagues. The year opens with the Nationals officially committed to the Eastern League, a minor league, but expectations are high that the team will play in the American Association. League with its 50 cent tickets and stronger competition is considered a bad choice for Washington by many.

The Nationals League will have teams in Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia and Providence. The Cleveland Spiders merged with the St. Louis Union franchise and will be called the St. Louis Maroons. The two weak franchises are in Buffalo and Providence. The American Association will field just eight teams in 1885, with franchises in Baltimore, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. This down from the twelve teams in 1884.

The Nationals will play their home games at Capitol Park this season. According to the press the visitors will hardly recognize the place, so radical have been the changes.

The two brick homes which last season stood between right field fence and the car stables have been torn away, and the ground they covered is now inside of the fence. The great extension this secured for the park has permitted the changing of the lines of the diamond so that the center field is now what was part of right field last year. The left foul line runs parallel with the left field fence, and few foul balls will be knocked over it this year. The field has been cut down and leveled, so that the left field fence is now on top of a bank from five to ten feet above the playing field. The seats in the lower story of the grand stand have been lowered two feet, so that spectators can view all parts of the field without difficulty. The open seats have been greatly extended along the right field fence.
Michael Scanlon is once again forced to restructure the team during the season. Heny Moore, the mystery man is cast off, his drinking and poro behavior too much for the 1885 squaed. Here is the story of an amazing team in a seson unlike any other.

But this is Michael Scanlon's nine and while Scanlon might be the best base ball mind in the District he is ill suited to be the team's manager and what follows is a season filled with highs and lows. .

“Baseball in the District,” is the title we have assigned to our project to document the early history of baseball in Washignton DC. This book like others in the series is written in chronological narrative, every game is covered. Local papers and sporting publications are used. This is how the players were viewed in their own time. Information about players the reader may not be aware of is referenced. Historical events are presented as they happened.

Our series about baseball in Washington, “Baseball in the District,” includes the following titles. Most are available as e-books at Barnes & Noble. Hard copy available upon request. Karen and I have been avid baseball fans and enjoy traveling the country taking in ball games at all levels.

The Baseball in the District series

1869 Rise of the Olympics
1875 Twilight
1877 to 1883 Renaissance
1884 Two Teams
1885 The Amazing Nationals
1886 A League City
1887 Trials and Tribulations
1888 The Last Hurrah
1889 Ward Sold
1890 The Dark Ages “Hewitt’s Nine”
1891 The Dark Ages “Scanlon’s Nine”
1892 Enter the Wagners
1893 The Cranks Rebel
1894 A Bad Team
1895 The Agony of Defeat
1896 Scrappy Bill
1897 Tom Brown’s Team
1898 War!
1899 End of an Era
1900 to 1904 An Orphan in an Upstart League
1918 Uncle Sam’s Game
Baseball Memories, Tales and Anecdote’s