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1961 Washington Senators
League American League
Ballpark Griffith Stadium
CityWashington, D.C.
Record61–100 (.379)
League place10th
Owners Elwood Richard Quesada
General managers Ed Doherty
Managers Mickey Vernon
Television WTOP
Radio WTOP
( Dan Daniels, John MacLean)
Seasons 1962 →

The 1961 Washington Senators season was the team's inaugural season, having been established as a replacement for the previous franchise of the same name, which relocated to the Twin Cities of Minnesota following the 1960 season, becoming the Minnesota Twins. The Senators finished in a tie for ninth place in the ten-team American League with a record of 61–100, 47+1⁄2 games behind the World Champion New York Yankees. It was also the team's only season at Griffith Stadium before moving its games to D.C. Stadium for the following season. The expansion team drew 597,287 fans, tenth and last in the circuit. [1] The old Senators had drawn 743,404 fans in 1960.

Offseason

The Senators, along with the Los Angeles Angels, were the first ever American League expansion teams. Both teams participated in Major League Baseball's first ever expansion draft. The Senators used their first pick in the 1960 Major League Baseball expansion draft to select pitcher Bobby Shantz from the New York Yankees (while the Angels picked Eli Grba). Grba wound up playing two-plus seasons for Los Angeles before returning to the minor leagues. However, Shantz never played for the Senators, as he was traded just two days later to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Harry Bright, Bennie Daniels, and R. C. Stevens, [2] all of whom played for the Senators in 1961.

A 1992 Associated Press article which looked prospectively to the Rockies and Marlins expansion draft and retroactively at previous expansion drafts stated: "The Senators drafted for experience and got burned when players such as Dave Sisler, John Klippstein, Tom Sturdivant, Dale Long, Bobby Klaus and Gene Woodling didn't produce." [3]

Notable transactions

Regular season

As an expansion team, the Senators were not expected to do well. They finished tied for last in the league with the Kansas City Athletics. They also finished 9 games behind their expansion brethren, the Angels. One bright spot was pitcher Dick Donovan, who led the American League in earned run average and WHIP, making the All-Star team and finishing 17th in league MVP voting.

Season standings

American League 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 109 53 0.673 — 65–16 44–37
Detroit Tigers 101 61 0.623 8 50–31 51–30
Baltimore Orioles 95 67 0.586 14 48–33 47–34
Chicago White Sox 86 76 0.531 23 53–28 33–48
Cleveland Indians 78 83 0.484 30½ 40–41 38–42
Boston Red Sox 76 86 0.469 33 50–31 26–55
Minnesota Twins 70 90 0.438 38 36–44 34–46
Los Angeles Angels 70 91 0.435 38½ 46–36 24–55
Kansas City Athletics 61 100 0.379 47½ 33–47 28–53
Washington Senators 61 100 0.379 47½ 33–46 28–54

Record vs. opponents

1961 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Team BAL BOS CHW CLE DET KCA LAA MIN NYY WSH
Baltimore — 11–7 11–7 9–9 9–9 13–5 8–10 11–7 9–9–1 14–4
Boston 7–11 — 9–9 5–13 8–10 10–8 11–7–1 11–7 5–13 10–8
Chicago 7–11 9–9 — 12–6 6–12 14–4 10–8 9–9–1 6–12 13–5
Cleveland 9–9 13–5 6–12 — 6–12 8–9 10–8 10–8 4–14 12–6
Detroit 9–9 10–8 12–6 12–6 — 12–6–1 14–4 11–7 8–10 13–5
Kansas City 5–13 8–10 4–14 9–8 6–12–1 — 9–9 7–11 4–14 9–9
Los Angeles 10–8 7–11–1 8–10 8–10 4–14 9–9 — 8–9 6–12 10–8
Minnesota 7–11 7–11 9–9–1 8–10 7–11 11–7 9–8 — 4–14 8–9
New York 9–9–1 13–5 12–6 14–4 10–8 14–4 12–6 14–4 — 11–7
Washington 4–14 8–10 5–13 6–12 5–13 9–9 8–10 9–8 7–11 —


Opening Day lineup

In the first game in franchise history, the "Presidential Opener" then held every year in Washington, the Senators were defeated by the Chicago White Sox, 4–3, on Monday, April 10, 1961. With leadoff man Coot Veal getting its first-ever hit (an infield single) in the first inning, Washington jumped out to a quick 2–0 advantage and led 3–1 after two innings. But the Senators were blanked thereafter and committed four errors, leading to two unearned runs, as Chicago battled back to win. Roy Sievers, former star of the previous Washington franchise, drove in a pair of White Sox runs with a home run and a sacrifice fly. [7] It was the last Presidential Opener in the history of Griffith Stadium, and the first one in which John F. Kennedy threw out the first ball.

  5 Coot Veal SS
  6 Billy Klaus 3B
  9 Marty Keough RF
25 Dale Long 1B
14 Gene Woodling LF
  1 Willie Tasby CF
  4 Danny O'Connell    2B
  8 Pete Daley C
20 Dick Donovan P [8]

Roster

1961 Washington Senators
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Gene Green 110 364 102 .280 18 62
1B Dale Long 123 377 94 .249 17 49
2B Chuck Cottier 101 337 79 .234 2 34
SS Coot Veal 69 218 44 .202 0 8
3B Danny O'Connell 138 493 128 .260 1 37
LF Chuck Hinton 106 339 88 .260 6 34
CF Willie Tasby 141 494 124 .251 17 63
RF Gene Woodling 110 342 107 .313 10 57

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Marty Keough 135 390 97 .249 9 34
Jim King 110 263 71 .270 11 46
Billy Klaus 91 251 57 .227 7 30
Bob Johnson 61 224 66 .295 6 28
Pete Daley 72 203 39 .192 2 17
Harry Bright 72 183 44 .240 4 21
Bud Zipfel 50 170 34 .200 4 18
Jim Mahoney 43 108 26 .241 0 6
R.C. Stevens 33 62 8 .129 0 2
Ken Retzer 16 53 18 .340 1 3
Joe Hicks 12 29 5 .172 1 1
Dutch Dotterer 7 19 5 .263 0 1
Ron Stillwell 8 16 2 .125 0 1
Ed Brinkman 4 11 1 .091 0 0
Chet Boak 5 7 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Joe McClain 33 212.0 8 18 3.86 76
Bennie Daniels 32 212.0 12 11 3.44 110
Dick Donovan 23 168.2 10 10 2.40 62
Ed Hobaugh 26 126.1 7 9 4.42 67
Tom Sturdivant 15 80.0 2 6 4.61 39
Hal Woodeshick 7 40.1 3 2 4.02 24
Claude Osteen 3 18.1 1 1 4.91 14
Héctor Maestri 1 6.0 0 1 1.50 2

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Marty Kutyna 50 143.0 6 8 3.97 64
Pete Burnside 33 113.1 4 9 4.53 56
John Gabler 29 92.2 3 8 4.86 33
Tom Cheney 10 29.2 1 3 8.80 20
Carl Mathias 4 13.2 0 1 11.20 7
Carl Bouldin 2 3.1 0 1 16.20 2

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Dave Sisler 45 2 8 11 4.18 30
Johnny Klippstein 42 2 2 0 6.78 41
Mike Garcia 16 0 1 0 4.74 14
Rudy Hernández 7 0 1 0 3.00 4
Roy Heiser 3 0 0 0 6.35 1

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
D Pensacola Angels Alabama–Florida League Archie Wilson
D Middlesboro Senators Appalachian League Lew Morton

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Middlesboro

Awards and honors

1961 American League ERA leader

References

  1. ^ Baseball Reference 1961 Miscellaneous Team Records
  2. ^ Bobby Shantz page at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ Rockies, Marlins Are Gearing Up : Expansion: Lessons of the past indicate that drafting young players is the key to success, Associated Press (Los Angeles Times), Nov. 14, 1992.
  4. ^ Ray Semproch page at Baseball-Reference
  5. ^ Jim King page at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ Coot Veal page at Baseball Reference
  7. ^ Retrosheet box score, 1961-04-10
  8. ^ "1961 Washington Senators Roster by Baseball Almanac".

External links

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