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Details
• Senators Grille, Holiday Inn on the Hill, 415 New Jersey
Ave. N.W., (202) 347-7678
• The Rock, 717 Sixth St. N.W., (202) 842-7625
• Grand Slam Sports Bar, Grand Hyatt Hotel, 1000 H St.
N.W., (202) 582-1234
• Crystal City Sports Pub, 529 S. 23rd St., Arlington, (202)
521-8215
• Champion Billiards Cafe, Federal Plaza, 1776 E.
Jefferson St., Rockville, (301) 231-4949
• MCI National Sports Gallery, MCI Center, F Street
between Sixth and Seventh streets N.W., (202) 628-3200. Enter F Street
side; take elevator to third floor.
• National Portrait Gallery, Eighth and F streets N.W., (202)
357-2700
• Jeff's Baseball Corner, 5536-A Port Royal Rd., Springfield,
(703) 321-9209
• House of Cards, 2411 University Blvd. W., Wheaton, (301)
933-0355
• Orioles' Baseball Store, 1666 K St. N.W., (202) 296-2473
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By
Theodore Fischer, Sidewalk
Senators
Grille, a
Capitol Hill sports bar, certainly possesses the world's greatest
collection of Senatorsiana. Crammed display cases and every vertical
surface exhibit yearbooks, baseball cards, posters, bats, mitts, uniforms,
clippings and lyrics to the team song "Our Washington Senators."
A Griffith Stadium ticket booth serves as the cashier's kiosk, a mural
depicts the stadium on a sunny day and tables are laminated with newspaper
accounts of Senators World Series games. How's the food? Suffice it to say
it does nothing to compromise the Senators' mystique.
Other great places to ogle memorabilia and watch the playoffs are The
Rock, a playground with 33 televisions for sports nuts near MCI
Center; the Grand Slam Sports Bar in the Grand Hyatt Hotel; the
Crystal City Sports Pub in Arlington, where five satellite dishes
feed 27 TVs; and Rockville's Champion Billiards Cafe.
The only scent of
the Senators at the MCI National Sports Gallery at MCI Center
is a large display case filled with Walter Johnson memorabilia: a Hall of
Fame plaque, a photo of a testimonial dinner at the Mayflower Hotel, a
letter from Franklin D. Roosevelt and much more. But most of the gallery's
lower level is devoted to baseball exhibits, including an 1840 ball and
other prehistoric equipment, photos of the greats and a bat used by Babe
Ruth that you can actually touch. The gallery also has two interactive
baseball games: "Call to the Bullpen" tests pitching prowess and
"Bottom of the Ninth" pits batters with real bats against a
pitching machine.
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? To "Champions of American
Sport," a permanent exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery,
across Seventh Street from the MCI Center. There are three Baseball
magazine covers of the "Yankee Clipper," photos of other
immortals and great baseball moments, and a cute statue of legendary
manager Casey Stengel.
And while the "Champions of American Sport" exhibit has nothing
on the Senators (surprise, surprise), you can buy some old yearbooks (for
$100 and up) and magazine covers of Senators sluggers Harmon Killebrew and
Frank Howard at Jeff's Baseball Corner. House of Cards sells
pennants and balls signed by the "Killer" and "Hondo,"
but a rare circa 1960s bat signed by the entire team is (supposedly) not
for sale.
While you can't go to a baseball game in D.C., you can purchase tickets
for Orioles home games at the Orioles' Baseball Store off Farragut
Square. Tickets for the 1999 season go on sale in early January. The store
sells other stuff, too, but it's all about the O's – including lots of
garments for Orioles hatchlings and $400 bats autographed by Cal Ripken
and Eddie Murray.
See also: Memories of the Senators in
Baseballtown, D.C. |
