This was the view from our seats at Nationals Ballpark this past June when we saw the Nats take on the Braves in a game that ended on a sliding catch by the Nats center fielder in the ninth that saved the game. Last night the Nationals defeated the Astros in seven to give a Washington D.C. team its first World Series since the 1924 Senators. Of course the Senators were not the only game in town back in the day; the Homestead Grays played there as well–and would have given the Senators a run for their money.

I have always been entranced by baseball in the nation’s capital, an interest fueled by the fact that my mother was born there. I reached out to numerous family members these past few weeks to ask if anyone knew if our grandparents (or parents, depending on the generation) attended Senators games while living in the District during the Depression and Second World War. No one knew for sure, but alas the consensus seemed to be no. In the 1980s my grandfather also had a Redskins Starter jacket. I never knew if his interest in the Redskins came from his time in D.C., or grew from the fact that that football team played in Boston for a time in the 1930s. He and his growing family would have been living in Anacostia when the team moved from New England to Washington in 1937. My grandparents moved back to Boston in 1945 when the war ended, with three daughters all under the age of ten in tow. The family turned, or returned, its rooting interests to the Red Sox, which is as it remains today.

It was a great season and post-season and it is so good to see championship baseball return to Washington.