WASHINGTON NATIONALS
The nation’s capital of Washington D.C. has a long held a proud history of various baseball clubs, often known as either the Senators or the Nationals, rightly chosen names for the city’s governmental role. In 1924, the Washington Senators won a World Series, led by Hall of Fame players like Goose Goslin, Sam Rice, and Walter Johnson. But unfortunately that would be the only title for the team, which eventually moved and became the Minnesota Twins in 1960.
Another failed attempt at baseball saw the future Texas Rangers play as the Washington Senators for ten years in the 60s, though a poor team failed to make an impact and they soon moved to Texas. Washington D.C. would then endure 33 years without a baseball club until the Montreal Expos decided to move to America.
The Expos were a woeful team and won just 1 division title in their 35 seasons in Canada. When the opportunity to make a change arrived, the club became the Washington Nationals in 2005 and began play at RFK Stadium, a venue often used for the USA Men’s National soccer team.
2005 was a decent first season for the Nationals, who benefitted from great play by guys like Ryan Zimmerman and Brad Wilkerson. They even led the division midway through the season before fading. 2006 saw some success with incoming free agents like Alfonso Soriano and Ramon Ortiz, though both only stayed in D.C. for one season.
Throughout the rest of the decade, the Nationals failed to construct a decent core group of players and usually finished last in their division, the NL East, which is typically dominated by rivals like the Atlanta Braves, the Philadelphia Phillies, and sometimes the New York Mets.
However, in 2008 the team built Nationals Park, a beautiful new home that has provided a much more intimate, Major League worthy setting for baseball in Washington. By no surprise, the team’s fortunes have improved greatly since the new home was erected.
The first signs of hope came in 2011, when the team nearly finished .500, going 80-81. Solid play by guys like Michael Morse, Danny Espinosa, and John Lannan revealed a Nationals team that was finally getting it together.
2012 became a magical year for the team and saw the Washington Nationals win their lone NL East division title. The main point of success came with the arm of pitcher Stephen Strasburg, a player with the potential to be a Hall of Famer. His progress had stalled after a rough injury in 2010, but in 2012 he was ready to go, winning 15 games. Other good players included Jordan Zimmerman, Ross Detwiler, Ian Desmond, and Adam LaRoche.
Although they won the division over the Braves, the Nationals would lose in 5 games in the NLDS to the St. Louis Cardinals, winners of the 2011 World Series. The loss was especially painful as the Nationals were just a single out away from winning game 5 before an epic 9th inning collapse.
2013 was a decent year but Washington would finish their division in 2nd place, missing the postseason. Jayson Werth had a huge year while Strasburg’s solid play continued. Looking ahead the future of this franchise lies in the arm of Strasburg, who has superstar potential. If they can get him the necessary run support, the Washington Nationals may be able to bring another World Series to the nation’s capital, nearly 100 years since their last title!
AAA Sports Memorabilia has a great selection of Washington Nationals autographed memorabilia both online and offline. Collectors go to great lengths to find and acquire collectibles that have significance to them. Autograph collectors are always looking for that unique autograph, a game-used item, or an autographed collectible that depicts a great moment in sports history. Since 2006, AAA Sports Memorabilia has been helping sports collectors in finding these great collectibles. All of our autographed sports memorabilia, including our autographed Washington Nationals collectibles, are guaranteed for life to be authentic or your money back. Our autographed memorabilia is obtained during private sessions with the athletes and a representative is there to watch each signature being applied to the collectible.
Visiting our Washington Nationals autographed sports memorabilia section often is best if you are looking for that next valuable Washington Nationals collectible to add to your collection. We have even more autographed Washington Nationals memorabilia in stock then what is on our website, so if you can’t find that collectible that you really want on our site, please contact us at cs@aaasportsmemorabilia.com to see if we have it in stock.
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