Clark Griffith

At 85 years old, Clark Griffith has this physical status:

Griffith entered the American Association in 1891, pitching 226+1⁄3 innings and winning 14 games for the St. Louis Browns and Boston Reds. He began the following season with the Chicago Colts. In 1893, the pitchers box was moved back; it had been 55 feet from home plate and was moved to the modern distance of 60 feet, six inches. Following that change, offensive numbers increased across baseball and many pitchers had to adjust their approaches.

Cap Anson was the player-manager of the Colts during Griffith's tenure and he utilized a rotation of only three starting pitchers. Just before Griffith's arrival on the team, pitcher Bill Hutchinson had thrown more than 600 innings in a single season for Anson, which may have contributed to a decline in Hutchinson's career. Griffith tried a new pitch to increase his longevity. By modifying the grip of a curveball, he threw a pitch similar to the screwball that Christy Mathewson had developed. He also often scuffed balls with his spikes or rubbed them in the grass.

In 1894, Griffith began a string of six consecutive seasons with 20 or more victories, compiling a 21–14 record and 4.92 earned run average (ERA). Griffith lowered his ERA over the following years to a low of 1.88 in 1898, the lowest mark in the league.

When Ban Johnson, a longtime friend, announced plans to form the American League, Griffith was one of the ringleaders in getting National League players to jump ship. Using the cover of his post as vice president of the League Protective Players' Association (a nascent players' union), Griffith persuaded 39 players to sign on with the new league for the 1901 season. Griffith himself signed on with the Chicago White Stockings as player-manager. He won 20 games for the final time in his career and led the White Stockings to the first AL pennant with an 83–53 record.

At Johnson's suggestion, Griffith left Chicago in 1903 to take over as manager of the New York Highlanders. The Highlanders had just moved from Baltimore, and Johnson knew that for the league to be successful, it needed a strong franchise in the nation's biggest city. Griffith's last year as a regular player was 1907 after he nearly suffered a breakdown from overwork in April 1907.

After a falling-out with the Highlanders' ownership, Griffith was fired during the 1908 season. The team had started strong, but the team's pitching faltered as the season progressed and Griffith was criticized for trading away Jimmy Williams in exchange for a disappointing prospect.

He made brief appearances as a player for the Reds (1909–1910) and Senators (1912, 1913 and 1914).

Griffith returned to the National League as manager of the Cincinnati Reds in 1909.

Late in the 1911 season, the American League's Washington Senators needed to raise money to pay for the construction of their new park, National Park, which had been hurriedly built just days before the start of the season after its predecessor, Boundary Park, burned down. Principal owner Thomas C. Noyes had been friends with Griffith, and asked one of his minority partners, Ed Walsh, to come to Washington as manager in 1912. At the same time, he also bought stock in the team as part of an effort to finance the construction of National Park. By selling the cattle on his Montana ranch, then mortgaging the ranch, Griffith was able to acquire a 10 percent stake in the Senators in two separate transactions totaling $27,000 ($758,141 in 2021 dollars), making him the team's largest single shareholder. At the time, the franchise had little going for it other than star pitcher Walter Johnson. In the American League's first 12 years, the Senators had never had a winning record or finished higher than sixth.

To entertain the fans, Griffith hired Nick Altrock as a first base coach in his first season with Washington. Described as a "natural buffoon", Altrock engaged in lighthearted fun while coaching first base. He wrestled with himself, copied the motions of the pitcher and made the fans laugh with other antics. Griffith also engineered one of the biggest turnarounds in major league history, leading the Senators to second place. In nine years, his Washington teams only twice finished below fifth in the eight-team league.

Through this time, Griffith frequently clashed with the Senators executives, who were sometimes unwilling to spend the money he felt necessary to make the team a consistent winner. Noyes had died in the middle of the 1912 season and was succeeded as president by Benjamin Minor. Unlike Noyes, Minor insisted that Griffith clear all transactions with him. Griffith began an effort to increase his interest in the team. Along the way, he used his ties with Secretary of War Newton D. Baker to keep the baseball season going past July after the government issued a "work or fight" order requiring all able-bodied men to either serve in the military or work in an essential occupation. Griffith persuaded Baker to allow ballplayers to perform military drills on the field with bats rather than rifles, allowing the season to go on through Labor Day.

In late 1919, frustrated by continued resistance on the board, Griffith joined forces with Philadelphia grain broker William Richardson, a close friend of Mack's, to buy controlling interest in the Senators. Minor was more than willing to sell, believing he could no longer devote attention to the team. Griffith boosted his holdings to 44 percent, while Richardson bought a 40.4 percent stake. Richardson and Griffith quickly came to an agreement that allowed Griffith to vote Richardson's shares as well, effectively giving Griffith a commanding 84 percent controlling interest. This all but assured his election as team president that November. At the same time, the Senators' home park, National Park, was renamed Griffith Stadium.

Griffith stepped down as manager after the 1920 season to devote all his energy to the front office. He finished his managerial career with a 1,491–1,367 record. His 1,491 wins ranked 19th all-time as of 2005. During his managing tenure, Griffith had a tradition of treating the fans to a farce game as the final game of the season. This tradition is a factor in the inflation of Walter Johnson's minuscule ERA from 1.09 to 1.14 in 1913.

Griffith was known for running the Senators on a shoestring. This was almost out of necessity; unlike most other owners, he had no income other than the Senators and Griffith Stadium. However, the Washington Redskins (who moved into the stadium in 1937 from Boston) and other tenants enabled him to turn a profit for 21 straight years.

He was known for his faith in young players. He twice entrusted 27-year-old players to manage his teams—Bucky Harris in 1924 and Joe Cronin in 1933. Griffith's wagers appeared to pay off, as the Senators won the pennant in both years under their new youthful managers. In Harris' case, they won the 1924 World Series. Cronin came to the team as a player when Griffith's friend Joe Engel, a former Senators pitcher, was placed in charge of the Chattanooga Lookouts at Engel Stadium. Engel was the first to scout Cronin for the club and said, "I knew I was watching a great player. I bought Cronin at a time he was hitting .221. When I told Clark Griffith what I had done, he screamed, "You paid $7,500 for that bum? Well, you didn't buy him for me. You bought him for yourself. He's not my ballplayer – he's yours. You keep him and don't either you or Cronin show up at the ballpark." Cronin later married Griffith's niece, Mildred June Robertson. He also leaned heavily on Joe Cambria, a scout who frequently found talented Cuban players for Griffith.

Ironically given his faith in young players, Griffith either would not or could not spend money on a farm system, preferring to mine prospects from independent minor league teams. For a time, the Senators had only three minor league teams–the Class A1 (now Double-A) Lookouts, the Class B (equivalent to a short-season A team before 2021, and a Low-A team since 2021) Charlotte Hornets, and the Class D (equivalent to a Rookie-level team today) Orlando Senators. This was a major reason why the Senators were unable to put together a consistent winner, especially after World War II.

Through all of this, Griffith's hold on the team appeared secure. When Richardson died in 1942, his twin brother, George, inherited his stake and voiced full confidence in Griffith. However, George died in 1948, triggering a series of events that almost cost Griffith control of the team. In 1949, after a string of mostly humdrum seasons, the Richardson estate sold its stake to John Jachym, a businessman who had been a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers. Griffith long believed he had the right to match any offer made by the Richardson estate, and was surprised when Jachym arrived at Griffith Stadium as part-owner. Jachym had no intention of being a silent partner, but Griffith was able to persuade his board to rebuff Jachym's effort to have any say in team affairs. He was particularly angered when Jachym expressed his fondness for longtime Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey, whom Griffith had long detested. When Jachym proposed buying the Buffalo Bisons of the International League, which would have given the Senators a Triple-A team for the first time, Griffith turned the request down out of hand.

Frustrated at being shut out, Jachym sold his stake to H. Gabriel Murphy six months later. However, Griffith understood that unless the team improved, the next vote would go against him.

To protect himself, Griffith persuaded Murphy to sell him enough stock to give him 52 percent of the club, making Griffith majority owner in name as well as in fact. In return, Griffith gave Murphy right of first refusal on his shares should the Griffiths ever decide to sell. However, Griffith stubbornly resisted all efforts to modernize. For example, it would be 1954 before he hired an ex-Senators player as manager. Additionally, he actively supported the St. Louis Browns' move to Baltimore, a mere 30 miles north, as the Baltimore Orioles, even though it would have almost certainly cut into the Senators' attendance.

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