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 RFK
Stadium
Washington,
DC
When one looks back at
the history of ballparks in the future, RFK Stadium will have one
distinction that separates it from any other ballpark as there were
33 seasons that baseball was not played at the stadium. For more
than five decades the Washington Senators played at Griffith Stadium
but moved to Minneapolis and became the Minnesota Twins after the
1960 season. By 1960, a new multipurpose ballpark was being
constructed along the Anacostia River. Once Clark Griffith moved the
Senators to Minneapolis after the 1960 season, MLB awarded DC with a
new franchise, again known as the Washington Senators. The team
played one year at Griffith Stadium before moving into their new
ballpark. The stadium was named D.C. (District of Columbia) Stadium for
its opening on April 9, 1962. D.C. Stadium became the first
cookie cutter stadium. It was renamed RFK (Robert F. Kennedy) Stadium in
1968. Baseball was played only nine years at RFK Stadium, coming to a
close on September 30, 1971. The Washington Senators moved to
Arlington after the 1971 season and became the Texas Rangers.
Although the stadium lacked a baseball tenant after the 1971 season,
it was the home of the Washington Redskins (NFL) until 1996 when
they moved to FedEx Field.
After a 33 year
hiatus, Major League Baseball returned to RFK Stadium in April
2005. Prior to 2005, there had been years of talk that a team may
relocate to the city. From 1995 until 2004 the Montreal
Expos struggled in attracting fans to Olympic Stadium and
had numerous financial/ownership problems. In 2001, MLB began studying the
idea of relocating the Expos, finally making a decision to move the
team to DC in September 2004. The Expos moved to the city
and RFK Stadium for the 2005 MLB season. In November 2004,
the Expos were renamed the Washington Nationals. As part of the
effort to bring the team to the city, RFK Stadium underwent
approximately $18.5 million in renovations to improve the stadium.
Renovations included new dugouts, improvements to the clubhouses,
scoreboard, pressbox, and making the seats in the lower deck
retractable again as the DC United (MLS) continue to play at the
stadium. Today's configuration of baseball at RFK Stadium is nearly
the same as it was thirty years ago. The large lower deck,
consisting of three sections of orange seats extends from the right
field foul pole to behind homeplate and to the left field foul pole.
No lower level seating exists behind the outfield wall. A small
section of white seats circles the field below the upper deck. The
upper deck encloses the entire field. The main video/scoreboard
hangs from the roof above the upper deck seats in right field.
Additional video ribbon boards are located along the middle rim of
the stadium. Beyond the outfield fence are the bullpens, the
Nationals behind the left field wall and the visiting team behind
the right field wall. Other than the latest upgrades, the only
difference at RFK Stadium since baseball ended there in 1971, is
the large manual scoreboard that was located behind the right
field fence is gone. In its place is a large Washington Nationals
clock.
The Washington Nationals played their first game at RFK
Stadium on April 15, 2005 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. For
three seasons the Nationals played at RFK Stadium, that was
oftentimes called the worst stadium in baseball. On September 23,
2007 the Nationals played their last game at RFK Stadium. The team
will move into their new 41,000 seat ballpark in April 2008. RFK
Stadium will remain the home of the DC United soccer team.
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