Union station..........has tons of Roman statues............that look at you like sentries.........guards....................

Nationals of the 1800s

Since they’ve settled in Washington, arguments have been made of who belongs to the Nationals. Do we think of the glory days as “our” 1994 Expos with great players such as Moises Alou, Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker and John Wetteland? And while the Twins have rightfully brought Killebrew with them, it just doesn’t seem fair that they get Walter Johnson. He’s 100% DC… he’s even a high school in Bethesda.
But there are 2 teams in the history of Washington that aren’t claimed, and we can be certain that at least some of our heritage lies with them. The Washington Nationals and the Washington Senators have had several incarnations before the Senators/Twins franchise, but only 2 of these lasted more than 1 year. They both played in the National League, prior to the existence of the AL. It can be argued that the 1880s teams were still playing before modern baseball was around, many rules were the same, but pitchers still threw from 45 feet away, and it took a while to determine that it should only require 4 balls for a walk. But by 1893 almost all the rules were the same as they are today. Regardless of the differences, the game was much more similar to today’s game than it was different. These forgotten Washington teams were in the NL and they never, in their 13 years of cumulative existence, had a winning season.
1886-1889 Washington Nationals (National League)
While not the first Washington Nationals, this is the first one to have lasted more than a year. They had a few good players, including an alleged innovator and a future Hall of Fame manager, and played at Swampoodle Grounds. Apparently, Swampoodle was the old name for the area around Union Station, and the Stadium was located on the spot where Union Station is now sitting. Reader and twitterer @MorseBeard did some research on the Swampoodle grounds, and had some good stuff to add. The next paragraph is all from… his research:
The stadium was called Capitol Park, but contemporary sources referred to it as the Swampoodle Grounds. After doing his own research years ago, he found that  “Capitol Park” had been located at the corner of North Capitol St and Mass Avenue, NE, with home plate situated near that corner, with the field fanning out northeasterly from there. Here is a link showing that spot. That’s the Old Post Office building now (you know, with the Capital City Brewing attached) and while it’s very close to Union Station, it is actually about a block over. His location is more descriptive anyway, indicating where home plate is and all. He also noted that ownership actually preferred to call the team the Statesmen, although Nationals was used as well.
The stadium did have some historic moments – Hall of Fame pitcher Pud Galvin won his 300th game there. As a sidenote, here’s an interesting story on Pud Galvin and steroids that were basically testosterone drained directly from a monkey’s… um… testosterone-makers.
1891-1899 Washington Senators (National League)
This team started in the final year of the American Association, and were known as the Washington Statesmen (hey, it beats “Wizards”) but when the league folded they continued on in the National League. Clearly those baseball forefathers saw the wisdom of playing in DC.

Eventually eliminated by contraction of the NL in 1900, they were resuscitated as the Senators in the 1901 AL. They played in Boundary Field, located at the corner of Georgia Ave and W St NW. Eventually it was renamed National Field, burned down, and Griffith Park went up in its place. Major League baseball was played at the location until 1960 1961, and today it is the site of Howard University. The best thing that happened on this field, as far as we’ve seen, is the following story taken from www.projectballpark.org (same place this picture was nabbed):

In 1897 the Senators tried a “Ladies Day” where women could get in for free. The starting pitcher, Winnie Mercer, was handsome and knew how to play the crowd. When he got into an argument and tossed by the umpire, the women stormed the field, tackled the umpire, and tore apart the stadium. The umpire was rescued by the team and escorted from the ballpark in disguise.