Griffith Was A Family Guy

DCist uses the Clark Griffith memorial outside RFK as a starting point for a look at the family that shaped Washington Baseball for better and for much worse for the first half of the last century.

Griffith started out as a pitcher. He had an excellent and long career, finishing up with the Senators in 1914.

Griffith had a troubled record on racial relations. Although the times in which he lived don't excuse the past, he was definitely a product of his generation and certainly not the only person in baseball, or society, to be on the wrong side of history on that issue.

A sports editor who knew him at the time, Sam Lacy, recalled: "I suggested he might be able to strengthen the Senators, which were a pathetic team. Griffith said if he signed black players, 'It would destroy the Negro Leagues.' That was a cop-out. He and I both knew it."

It's a good read for one of the forgotten giants of Washington baseball.