Nationals History

The Washington Nationals is a Major League Baseball franchise in Washington, D.C.. It was relocated from Montréal, Québec, Canada after the 2004 season, where it was known as the Montreal Expos. It was founded in 1969 due to National League Expansion and played the first season as Washington Nationals in 2005. The team was known as the Washington Senators in 1901 to 1955 then changed the name to Washington Nationals in 1956. It was initally announced on September 29, 2004, that the team will move to Washingtonbut it remained uncertain until a final vote by the D.C. City Council on December 21. The council had changes in the agreement struck by Mayor Anthony A. Williams with MLB that required the city to use public financing for a new stadium to be built for the 2008 season. However, the two sides were able to devise a plan that allows private financing for the stadium while ensuring that a stadium will be ready in 2008.

The Nationals will play their games from 2005 to 2007 seasons at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, which will be renovated to accommodate the team. The new stadium will be located in Southeast near the Anacostia River . The team has played in different parks as their home stadiums; they played in Jarry Park in 1969 – 1976 which was at Montreal. Then later in 1977 to 2004 the team was in Olympic Stadium in Montreal also and now their new home ballpark will be at the Robert F Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington which is under renovation. The color of their uniforms is Red, White and Blue with a logo design of a shield which has a baseball and on top “WASHINGTON NATIONALS “words imposed by a golden trim. The team has only won the Division Title in 1981 and 1994. The team has historic games that they will never forget in the team history. On April 14, 1969, Mack Jones hit a three-run at home and two-run triple that gave then an 8-7 win over the St. Louis Cardinals .It was a first home victory as a franchise at Jarry Park.

Jones' blast was also the first MLB home run hit outside the United States. On September 29, 2004, the Expos played their final game in Montréal, a losed 9-1 to the Florida Marlins with 31,395 fans at Olympic Stadium. On October 3, 2004, the New York Mets defeated Montréal 8-1 at Shea Stadium, at the final game of the Montréal Expos existance as a franchise. In Dec. 2004, the DC and MLB agreed to a finance a pack of $400 million publicly baseball stadium to allow the former Expos (now the Nationals) to move to DC. The new stadium, located at South Capitol and N Streets, SE, is supposed to be in action in 2008. The city of DC has chosen a Near Southeast site for the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium. It's with in the South Capitol Street Corridor, surrounded by N, Potomac Avenue, 1st, and South Capitol. The Navy Yard Metro station is one block to the north. In trying to decide on the design of the stadium, DC officials also are now evaluating the eight private financing schemes that have been submitted. The details developer Herbert S. Miller's proposal of "developing the land surrounding the planned ballpark in Southeast with the large-scale retailers [like Wal-Mart or Costco], a variety of smaller stores and restaurants, 450 loft apartments, 780,000 square feet of office space and a 250-room hotel." The city will acquire all of the land south of M, north of Potomac Avenue, east of South Capitol Street, and west of first Street and give it to him.