On December 4, 1943, the Senators sold All-Star Bob Johnson to the Red Sox. Washinton owner Clark Griffith would later recall the deal as one of the worst he ever made, as Johnson went on to have two solid seasons with Boston, hitting .302 for the Sox before retiring at 39.
Going into the ninth inning against the White Sox on May 23, 1901, the Athletics were trailing 11-7, but managed to load the bases with nobody out. White Sox player-manager Clark Griffith put himself into the game and intentionally walked cleanup hitter Napoleon Lajoie, forcing in a run and cutting the lead to three. The strategy proved successful when he induced the next three batters to ground out, thereby completing the 11-9 victory at Chicago’s South Side Park.
Eighty-four-year-old Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack challenged Clark Griffith, the seventy-eight-year-old owner of the Senators, to a race from third base to home plate, to take place prior to an exhibition game on April 4, 1948. An ambulance drove the two competitors, as well as a doctor and two nurses, to the starting line. Commissioner Happy Chandler officiated the race and Senators coach Nick Altrock fired the starting gun. The race ended in a close tie, or as Commissioner Chandler described it, “a dead heat.”
