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The Washington Nationals (also called the '''Nats''') are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Washington, D.C. Prior to the 2005 season, the current Nationals team played in Montreal as the Montreal Expos . The team's relocation was the first in Major League Baseball since 1972 , when the Washington Senators moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, becoming the Texas Rangers . The franchise became Washington's first in the National League (both previous Nationals/Senators teams played in the American League ) since 1899 , and was owned by Major League Baseball from 2002 (in Montreal) until mid-2006. On May 3 , 2006 , a new ownership group was selected, headed by Theodore N. Lerner . The group formally took possession of the team on July 22 , 2006 . Former longtime Atlanta Braves sports executive Stan Kasten is President of the team. The Nationals are a member of the National League 's Eastern Division , and they currently play at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium , which, through 1972, was the ballpark for the second Senators team. The team is expected to move into a New Ballpark , located in Southeast D.C. near the Anacostia River and with views of the Capitol building, in the spring of 2008. MONTREAL EXPOS (1969-2004) ''Main article: Montreal Expos '' The Montreal Expos joined the National League in 1969, along with the San Diego Padres . After a decade of losses, the team became a winner in the early 1980s , winning their only division championship in the strike-shortened split season of 1981 . That team lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 in the National League Championship Series . After several mediocre years in the late 1980s, the team rebounded in the early 1990s . In 1994 the Expos, led by a talented group of players including Larry Walker , Moisés Alou , Marquis Grissom and Pedro Martínez , had the best record in major league baseball when the 1994 Major League Baseball Strike forced the cancellation of the remainder of the season. After the disappointment of 1994, the Expos began to lose players, money and fans. Ownership squabbles, the decimated fan base, a difficulty in selling broadcasting rights, and numerous other issues led to the team being bought by MLB in 2002. RELOCATION TO WASHINGTON Washington is a city with a Rich Baseball History . The Washington Senators , a founding member of the American League , played in the nation's capital from 1901 to 1960. These Senators were founded and owned by Clark Griffith and played in Griffith Stadium . With notable stars including Walter Johnson and Joe Cronin , the Senators won the 1924 World Series and pennants in 1925 and 1933 , but were more often unsuccessful and moved to Minnesota for the 1961 season. A second Washington Senators (1961-1971) had a winning record only once in their 11 years, though bright spots, such as slugger Frank Howard , earned the love of fans. The second Senators moved to Texas for the 1972 season, and Washington spent the next 33 years without a baseball team. unveils the new logo.]]After several years in a holding pattern, MLB began actively looking for a relocation site for the Expos. Some of the choices included Oklahoma City ; Washington D.C. ; San Juan, Puerto Rico ; Monterrey, Mexico ; Portland, Oregon ; Northern Virginia ; Norfolk, Virginia ; and Charlotte, North Carolina . In the decision-making process, Commissioner Bud Selig added Las Vegas, Nevada to the list of potential Expos homes. On September 29 , 2004 , MLB officially announced that the Expos would move to Washington, D.C. in 2005 . The move was approved by the owners of the other teams in a 28–1 vote on December 3 ( Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos cast the sole dissenting vote). In addition, on November 15 , 2004 , a lawsuit by the former team owners against MLB and former majority owner Jeffrey Loria was struck down by arbitrators, ending legal moves to keep the Expos in Montreal. Although there was some sentiment to revive the name Senators, political considerations factored into the choice of Nationals, a revival of the . Another reason was the Texas Rangers (the second Washington Senators team) still owned the rights to the "Senators" name. Opposition from the Orioles The move was announced despite opposition from Peter Angelos , owner of the nearby Baltimore Orioles. Since 1972, the Orioles had been the only MLB franchise in the Baltimore-Washington area, which he considered a single market in spite of vastly different cultures and populations in the two cities. Angelos contended that the Orioles would suffer financially if another team were allowed to enter the market. Critics objected that the Orioles and the Washington Senators had shared the market successfully from 1954 through 1971. This reasoning disturbed many in Washington who recalled that it was the Griffith family, owners of the Washington Senators, who allowed the St. Louis Browns to move to Baltimore in 1954 in the first place. On March 31 , 2005 , Angelos and Major League Baseball struck a deal to protect the Orioles against any financial harm the Nationals might present. Under the terms of the deal, television and radio broadcast rights to Nationals games are handled by the Orioles franchise, who formed a new network (the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network ) to produce and distribute the games for both franchises on both local affiliates and cable/satellite systems. MASN was not, however, immediately available on all cable providers, adding to the frustration of Nationals fans. In fact, most in the DC area missed almost the entirety of the Nationals first two seasons. The deal with Angelos makes the Nationals the only major league baseball team which does not own their own broadcast rights. The ballpark controversy in RFK Stadium .]] The team's relocation to Washington was contingent on a financing plan for the Nationals' Stadium — this plan quickly became the subject of much debate on the D.C. Council. Three Council members who supported Mayor Anthony Williams's plan were ousted in September 2004's Democratic Party primary. In addition, an opinion poll conducted by the '' Washington Post '' during the peak of the controversy found that approximately two-thirds of District residents opposed the mayor's stadium plan. Much of the controversy centered on the fact that the city would be helping finance a $581 million stadium without state or county support, despite the fact that a large portion of the team's fan base would be drawn from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs. {Link without Title} During December 2004, the move to Washington itself was called into doubt when the D.C. Council sought to change details of the stadium's financing. When the Council voted on December 14 to require 50 percent private financing for any new stadium, MLB ceased promotional activities for the Nationals and announced that they would consider looking for a new market. Eventually, the council passed an amended plan on December 21 , 2004 that proved slightly more financially favorable to the city, while remaining acceptable to MLB. Mayor Williams signed the stadium financing package on December 30 . During the 2005 season, a private financing plan for construction of the stadium was negotiated between the city and a syndicate of bankers led by Deutsche Bank . The negotiations of the details ran into another problem in November 2005. The bankers requested a letter of credit or other financial guarantee of $24 million US, $6 million for each of four years, ensuring payment of lease revenues against various risks including poor attendance and terrorism. The city requested that Major League Baseball provide this guarantee, which they were unwilling to do. On December 22 , 2005, the ''Post'' reported that Major League Baseball had specifically instructed prospective owners not to offer to pay cost overruns on the stadium if they were selected as the owners. Bidders were also told not to communicate with the press about these issues. In February 2006, the DC City Council imposed a $611 million cap on the stadium. Finally, on March 5 , Major League Baseball signed a lease for a new ballpark, agreeing to the city's $611 million cap. MLB also agreed to contribute $20 million toward the cost of the stadium, although it did not agree to cover stadium overruns. Further, MLB added the condition that excess ballpark tax revenue earmarked for debt service for the bonds to be available for cost overruns. Two days later, on March 7 the DC City Council, by a vote of 9 to 4, approved a construction contract for a state-of-the-art stadium with a contemporary glass-and-stone facade, seats for 41,000 fans and a view of the U.S. Capitol, and affirmed its demand that public spending on the project be limited to $611 million. The votes were the final actions needed to satisfy the terms of the deal struck in September 2004, paving the way for the sale of the team. Major League Baseball had agreed at the time that the franchise was moved to Washington, DC, to sell the team to an owner or ownership syndicate. Several dates for sale of the team were set and missed due to the legal wrangling regarding the building of the stadium. The delay was harshly criticized by city residents and leaders as reported in the '' Washington Post ''. Selecting from a finalized group of three potential ownership syndicates, Major League Baseball announced in July 2006 that it had chosen the Lerner Enterprises group, led by billionaire real-estate developer Theodore N. Lerner . The final sale price of the team was $450 million and the transfer of ownership was completed July 24 , 2006 . In late September 2006, Comcast finally agreed to broadcast the Nationals games. Viability of the Washington baseball market Due to the history of Washington franchises (See Washington Senators ), there are doubts about whether Washington will actually be a better market for a major league team than Montreal in the long term. Major League Baseball does not express such doubts, and proponents of the move argue that the failure of previous franchises has more to do with poor business decisions and financial management on the part of their owners than with any lack of popular support in the region itself. Some analysts {Link without Title} have pointed out that Washington may be less suited than some other cities to support baseball because it is primarily an African-American city (59%), and that African-Americans generally support baseball less than whites. Past Washington Senators teams have blamed poor attendance partially on lack of attendance by African-Americans. Washington has larger suburbs than it did in the 60s, so some analysts believe this will be a less important factor than in the past. Still, both versions of the Senators only finished in the first half of the American League in attendance in 9 out of 71 seasons; the worst percentage of any team in Major League Baseball history that played for more than two seasons, including the Expos. The only season the Senators finished with more than one million in attendance was 1946 . Though partially a product of the team's surprising 2005 first half showing, the Nationals' midseason attendance totals exceeded the Expos' 2004 total attendance. The final attendance for the 2005 season was 2,731,993; the 2005 total in Washington, D.C. exceeded the previous three seasons in Montreal combined (2002-2004) and was 11th in MLB. Nevertheless, Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf - MLB's point-man on the Nationals - later expressed disappointment in the first season's attendance, noting that it compared unfavorably with the first seasons of recent expansion teams http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/news_story.asp?ID=145306. The counterargument to Mr. Reinsdorf is that the Nationals did not have a good local radio contract (broadcasting on a station with a weak signal which could not be heard in most of the region), did not have a good local TV contract (most cable users did not have access to the games), and spent little or no money on advertising. Another contributing factor may have been the aging RFK Stadium itself, and its lack of quality concessions. Attendance numbers dipped considerably in the 2006 season to 2,153,150 total and 26,582 per game http://espnradio.espn.go.com/mlb/attendance?year=2006, which was well below the MLB-average of 31,381 fans per game http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2608592&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines. The team also finished last in their division, which probably contributed to the poor attendance. In the 2006 annual estimates made by Forbes Magazine , the Nationals were the 6th most valuable franchise in Major League Baseball at $440 million http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/9387893. Notable firsts from the 2005 season
Notable moments from the 2006 season
Notable moments from the 2007 season
NEW OWNERSHIP AND "THE PLAN" When Ted Lerner took over the club in mid-2006 he hired Stan Kasten as team President. Kasten was widely known as the architect of the Altanta Braves before and during their run of 14 consecutive National League Eastern Division titles. "The Plan" as it became known, was a long range plan, starting with rebuilding from the ground up: investing in the farm system and draft picks, and to have a suitable team to go along with their new stadium. At the end of the 2006 season, the Nationals declined to re-sign free agent and star Alfonso Soriano . Soriano signed a $136 million contract with the Cubs, and Washington received two draft picks in return. Jose Guillen was also let go to free agency, and another high draft pick was obtained. Another high priced player, Jose Vidro , was traded to the Seattle Mariners for prospects Chris Snelling (outfield) and RHP Emiliano Fruto. In mid-2006, the Nats received Austin Kearns , Felipe Lopez , and Ryan Wagner from the Reds, giving up Gary Majewski , Bill Bray , Royce Clayton , Brendan Harris and Daryl Thompson . In August they traded Livan Hernandez to the Arizona Diamondbacks for pitching prospect Matt Chico and Garrett Mock. The team acquired pitching prospects Luis Atilano (Braves), Shairon Martis (Giants) and Jhonny Nunez (Dodgers). In 2006 they had two first round draft picks, and signed them both (outfielder Chris Marrero and righthander Colten Willems), and also signed a 16-year-old Dominican shortstop, Esmailyn Gonzalez, for $1.4 million.1 Other players traded or let go from the 2005 season were Preston Wilson , Hector Carrasco , Jamey Carroll , and Terrmel Sledge . In the front office, the Nationals hired the well respected former Arizona scouting director Mike Rizzo to be the vice president of baseball operations, essentially the second-in-command under General Manager Jim Bowden.2 As for their farm system, the Nats had a lot of work to do. By the spring of 2007 ''Baseball America'' had ranked the Nats organization as dead last twice in four years in terms of minor league talent3 The Nats had five of the first 70 picks in the 2007 first-year player draft -- their own two, and three compenastion picks (two from losing Soriano, and one for Guillen) -- and selected what many considered to be four of the top 30 players available. Over all, the Nationals signed all twenty of their first twenty draft picks.4 Their rookie team, Vermont, landed three starting pitchers to the NY-Penn League all star game.5 In addition, after having no teams in the Dominican Summer League, the Nats fielded two clubs in 2007, one of which went to the finals. 2007 SEASON: "PLEDGE YOUR ALLEGIANCE" See Also: 2007 Washington Nationals season After losing four starters (Livan Hernandez, Tony Armas, Ramon Ortiz and Pedro Astacio) from the prior year, the Nationals invited an extraordinary 36 pitchers to spring training.67 On Opening Day, the Nationals lost their starting shortstop ( Cristian Guzman , hamstring) and center fielder ( Nook Logan ) for five weeks. At the end of April, one of their starters, Jerome Williams hurt his ankle while batting and was placed on the 15-day disabled list. Then, in the space of just 10 days in May, Shawn Hill , John Patterson , and Jason Bergmann went on the disabled list. Jerome Williams returned, pitched one game, and went back on the DL with a shoulder injury. The Washington Post's wrote: "Almost everything that could sink a team's attitude has befallen the Nats. They started the year 1-8, then they lost eight in a row to drop to 9-25."8 They pressed journeymen Mike Bacsik , Micah Bowie (a relief pitcher) and Jason Simontacchi , along with and rookie reliever Levale Speigner into the starting rotation, amidst predictions that the 2007 Nationals might equal the 1962 Mets' record of futility, 120 losses in one season.9. But the Nationals bounced back, going 24-18 in their next 42 games through June 25. But on that day, a day in which Bergman made his first start off the DL, the Nationals received the news that shortstop Cristian Guzman , their leadoff hitter (and second on the team with a .329 batting average) was lost for the rest of the season due to a thumb injury he received the day before tagging out a runner. QUICK FACTS :Legal Name: Despite being publicly known as the Washington Nationals, until it was sold by MLB, the legal name of the team was still Baseball Expos LP . With the Lerner family as new owners, it is now known as Washington Nationals Baseball Club, LLC . :Founded: 1969 (Relocated from Montreal in 2005) :Stadium: RFK Stadium , Washington (capacity 45,000 when used for baseball) 2005 -Present :Uniform Colors: The Nationals adopted the red, white and blue used by previous Washington baseball teams while adding gold trim. Red Hat s and white Jersey s are worn for home games, while dark blue hats and grey jerseys are worn for road games. The new alternate uniforms include red and gold jerseys and hats. :Logo Design: A shield featuring "Washington" in a ribbon device over "Nationals" in a hard-block font, both superimposed over a baseball flanked by 9 stars, representing the 9 defensive players of a baseball team. The scripted "W" on the Nationals' hats is similar to that of the former Washington Senators (1961 expansion, now the Texas Rangers ). There is also an alternate logo of an interlocking DC (similar to the alternate logos of the San Diego Padres , Los Angeles Dodgers , and San Francisco Giants ) :Mascot: A six-foot, two-inch (1.88 meters) tall eagle chick named " Screech ", wearing a Washington Nationals cap and matching jersey. :Team Motto: Pledge Your Allegiance. :Other Nicknames: Often called the '''Nats'''. :Current ownership: Lerner family ( Lerner Enterprises ) :Playoff appearances (1): 1981 (as the Montreal Expos) :Local Television: MASN , WDCA 20 , WTTG 5 :Local Radio: Washington Post Radio - WTWP 107.7 FM/1500 AM :Spring Training Facility: Space Coast Stadium , Viera, FL PEOPLE OF NOTE Baseball Hall Of Fame rs
Broadcasters For a list of notable Montreal Expos broadcasters, see .
Current roster Retired numbers With the exception of 42, retired for all MLB teams to honor , number 10 was formerly worn by shortstop Royce Clayton and catcher Brandon Harper and is currently worn by infielder Ronnie Belliard , and number 30 was worn by reliever Mike Stanton and currently belongs to pitcher Chris Booker . The retired numbers for the Expos are now displayed at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, home of the NHL 's Montreal Canadiens . Washington Hall of Stars RFK Stadium has a series of banners displaying a Washington Hall of Stars above its right-field fence. The banners replaced a prior version consisting of lighted signs that ran around the railing between the upper and lower decks at RFK. The original version of the Hall of Stars was removed to make way for LED boards and to create additional advertising space when the Nationals came to RFK. The Hall of Stars is actually a thick, green banner hung on the back wall of the lower level of the stadium. Originally, the Hall was hung with the right edge justified against the RF foul pole; for the 2006 season, it was moved to the left and aligned with RFK's famous Budweiser sign to accommodate 4-time MLS Cup Champions DC United's banners. Figures from all of sport, including sportswriters, are eligible, but, as yet, no Nationals figures have been honored. The following Washington Senators are so honored:
Sievers (the second time around), Hinton and Howard played for the "New Senators" who became the Rangers; Vernon, Yost and Hodges managed the new Senators and Selkirk was an executive for the second franchise. All others either played for or managed the "Old Senators" who became the Twins. Neither the Twins nor the Rangers ever retired any numbers while they were the Washington Senators, nor have they so honored any former Senators since their moves, with the exception of Harmon Killebrew, whose number 3 was retired by the Twins on his election to the Hall Of Fame . Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard are also listed on the Hall of Stars banner, honoring their contributions playing for the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues . Both are in the Baseball Hall Of Fame , as are Johnson, Griffith, Goslin, Cronin, Wynn and Killebrew. SEASON STANDINGS (as Washington Nationals) FRANCHISE RECORDS MINOR LEAGUE AFFILIATIONS
RADIO AND TELEVISION The Nationals' Flagship Radio Station is WTWP , "'' Washington Post '' Radio" at 107.7 FM and 1500 AM, which is owned by Bonneville International . Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler are the Play-by-play announcers. Nationals' telecasts are predominantly on Mid-Atlantic Sports Network , with a handful of games simulcast on WDCA , "My20." Bob Carpenter is the TV play-by-play announcer. Hall-of-fame pitcher Don Sutton left TBS after 17 years to become the Color Analyst replacing Tom Paciorek . SEE ALSO FOOTNOTES
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