The Washington Nationals are 5/4 odds to win the championship in the first World Series in the Washington, DC area since 1933 when the Washington Senators lost to the New York Giants.
The Washington Senators won their only championship with a victory in the 1924 World Series. Back then, the Senators were stocked with stellar players with vintage monikers like Goose Gosslin, Sam Rice, and Bucky Harris.
Despite the long odds, the Washonton Senators made subsequent appearances in the World Series in 1925 and again in 1933. In the 1933 World Series, the Senators lost to the NY Giants in six games. However, the victory in 1924 marked the only World Series title for the DC area.
After sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2019 NLCS, the Nationals will face the winner of the 2019 ALCS. The Houston Astros hold a 2-1 edge over the New York Yankees after Game 4 got postponed due to a heavy rainstorm in New York City.
2019 WORLD SERIES ODDS:
Houston Astros 1/1
Washington Nationals 5/4
NY Yankees 5/1
The World Series is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, October 22 in either New York or Houston. Both remaining American League teams held a better record than the Nationals, so the ALCS winner gets home field advantage in the World Series. The Houston Astros are the favorites to win the World Series at 1/1 odds, but the Washington Nationals are not far behind with 5/4 odds to win the title.
Damn Yankees
If the Yankees win the ALCS, the Senators and Yankees will meet in the World Series. If you’ve been a baseball fan since the 1960s, then you know the thought of the Yankees/Senators in the World Series seems a little off. Back in the day, the Senators were an American League team (and AL East team) before they bolted DC twice.
The initial Senators franchise relocated to Minnesota in 1961 and rebranded as the Twins. The second Senators franchise became an expansion team lasted a decade before the team headed southwest toward Dallas in 1971 and renamed themselves the Texas Rangers.
Once the Boston Red Sox sold two-way player Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920, the Senators era as one of the elite teams in the American League quickly faded.
During WWII, the Senators had a shot at the AL pennant due to many of the top players serving in the military. In the post-WWII era, the Senators returned to the bottom of the American League, while those Damn Yankees went on to win pennant after pennant.
In 1954, Douglass Wallop wrote a book inspired by Faust’s deal with the devil titled “The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant”. You might know it better as the famous Broadway play “Damn Yankees” directed by George Abbott. The plot involves a distraught Washington Senators fan makes a deal with the devil to turn him into a power hitter to help the Senators “finally beat those damn Yankees”.
“You Gotta Have Heart” is a popular tune in DC, but nothing really gets the fans going these days than the infectious earworm “Baby Shark”.
