The Washington Senators.

POVICH, Shirley [Eddie Yost.

$750.00

Item Number: 146647

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1954.

First edition of this informal history of one of the oldest baseball teams in the United States. Octavo, original red cloth, illustrated with black and white photographs. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half title page, “To John Howard Shirley Povich.” Additionally signed by members of the 1954 and 1955 Senators Eddie Yost, Bob Porterfield, Jim Busby, and Chuck Stobbs on the front free endpaper above the signatures of Calvin Griffith (Hall of Fame 2010) and Bob Wolff. Signed a second time by Calvin Griffith beneath his photo between pages 86 and 87. Griffith, nephew of longtime Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith (Hall of Fame 1946), assumed ownership of the team in 1955. This book, presumably, was signed during or after his transition to franchise owner, a position which he held for many years. He was also responsible for negotiating the team’s move to Minnesota in 1960. Bob Wolff, the bottom most signature on the front free endpaper, was the TV and radio voice of the Senators from 1947 to 1960. He also followed the team to Minnesota. Near fine in a very good price-clipped dust jacket.  dust jacket.

Now known as the Minnesota Twins, the Washington Senators team was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1901. The Senators began their history as a consistently losing team, at times so inept that San Francisco Chronicle columnist Charley Dryden famously joked, "Washington: First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League," a play on the famous line in Henry Lee III's eulogy for President George Washington as "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." After a slew of losses, the team entered a new era with the addition of a talented young pitcher, Walter Johnson, and a new Washington manager, Clark Griffith. In 1924, The Senators faced John McGraw's heavily favored New York Giants in the World Series and won, becoming repeat American League champions before their decline after 1934. The team's longtime competitive struggles were later fictionalized in the 1954 book 'The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant,' which became the 1955 Broadway musical 'Damn Yankees' and the 1958 film starring then "heart-throb" leading-man actor Tab Hunter.