That is the signature quote from what is considered baseball’s Gettysburg Address. July 4 marks the 80th anniversary of Lou Gehrig’s speech, following his devastating Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis, in between games of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium.

The quote has defined the life of one of baseball’s greatest players.ÌýMost baseball fans never saw Gehrig hit one of his 493 home runs in person.ÌýJust a few grainy black and white film clips of him playing still exist.

What lives on is the courage of a man facing a devastating diagnosis, telling the world how lucky he is. Less than two years later he would be dead from the rare disease he gave a face to, as well as a name — Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Gehrig was diagnosed with ALS at the Mayo Clinic on his 36th birthday, June 19, 1939.ÌýThe previous month, hitting just .148, he’d ended his record of consecutive games played at 2,130, telling manager Joe McCarthy that he was benching himself for the good of the team.

Not long after the diagnosis became public, the wheels were set in motion to honor the “Iron Horse.” The all American holiday seemed like the perfect time.ÌýLou Gehrig Day would be held with the Washington Senators in town July 4 for a doubleheader.ÌýThere were no separate admissions in those days — the fans stayed for the rest time between games and on this day, they would spend it watching one of the iconic moments in sports history.

Dozens of former teammates showed up, including Wally Pipp, whose benching allowed Gehrig to start his streak 17 years earlier.ÌýOne might think a man who’d become a verb for losing his job — as in, “he was Pipped” — wouldn’t want to be associated with the man tied to that distinction. But that was kind of respect Gehrig received from everybody.ÌýAlmost everybody.

Babe Ruth, whose bright star far outshined Gehrig, even though they were near equals on the field, hadn’t spoken to his former teammate in years.ÌýThough characteristically late, the Bambino showed up for this one ready to bury the past. The photo of the hug he gave Gehrig after the speech is still tear-worthy eight decades later.

The first game, won by the Senators 3-2, lasted less than two hours.ÌýThe ceremony went more than 40 minutes. Along with lots of tributes, Gehrig was showered with gifts, including a silver trophy with his teammates names inscribed.ÌýHis No. 4 was retired, the first number retirement in the history of sports.

Covering the event for The Washington Post was Shirley Povich.ÌýHe (yes, Shirley was a “he” even though he was later listed in “Who’s who among American women”) was in the midst of a 75-year writing career that would place him among the greatest sports writers who ever lived. Those of us lucky enough to read his columns over the years were treated to the best in writing and reporting.ÌýSomehow though, that “luckiest man” thing never reached his typewriter keys.

Povich’s lede is often referenced in connection with the speech.

“I saw strong men weep this afternoon, expressionless umpires swallow hard and emotion pump the hearts and glaze the eyes of 61,000 baseball fans in Yankee Stadium.”

Later in the column Povich quoted a portion of the speech where Gehrig said, “I have been a lucky guy.” But nowhere in the column does, “Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth” appear.

Today, he’d be blasted on Twitter and a newly edited version would appear. Not in 1939. Maybe it just wasn’t that big a deal at the time.

It really wasn’t until “Pride of the Yankees” starring Gary Cooper came out in 1942 that the speech took on the life it has today. While part of the speech, including the famous line, was filmed, there were no television sets to watch it on.ÌýOnly those in attendance heard it. In the movie, we get Cooper’s baritone, western-accented voice.ÌýAnd with background music, it has more gravitas than the high pitched New York accented nasal from the real thing.

One can give Povich a break on this one.ÌýIt’s not like his career took a hit — he died 59 years later, a day before his final column appeared in the Post.

As for Gehrig, the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown waived the five-year post retirement waiting period and inducted him the following year. That same year, he was appointed New York City Parole Commissioner by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.

With physical assistance from his wife, Gehrig served in that role for nearly a year-and-a-half.ÌýDuring that time, he sent a young man named Rocco Barbella back to reform school for violating his probation. Still obviously hardheaded, Barbella cursed out the Yankee legend before being hauled away.

Years later, Barbella became known as Rocky Graziano and was a Hall of Famer himself as a boxer. His life story is told in a book and the Paul Newman movie, “Somebody Up There Likes Me.”

Asked during his boxing career about his meeting with Gehrig, Graziano said, “I probably should shake Gehrig’s hand for straightening me out.ÌýBut it was too late.ÌýI found out he was dead.”

Lou Gehrig died June 2, 1941.ÌýHe was 37 years old.

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With an offense that had been struggling and a bullpen that’s been a seasonlong nightmare, there seemed to be little hope of a win after five innings, when he exited down 5-3, having thrown 105 pitches.

Then things changed dramatically. The Nationals scored six runs in the bottom of the fifth; the bullpen miraculously threw four scoreless innings, and Strasburg earned that 100th victory.

While 100 wins is certainly an accomplishment to be proud of — every team would like to have a pitcher who wins that many in less than nine and a half seasons — it’s not exactly what we envisioned the night he made his major league debut.ÌýAnything in the universe seemed possible June 8, 2010.

When the Nationals made Strasburg the No. 1 pick of the draft a year earlier, his talent was considered generational. Playing for major league Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn at San Diego State, Strasburg’s reputation spread across the country.ÌýHe was the only amateur selected for the 2008 Olympic team.ÌýHe once struck out 23 against Utah.ÌýHe reportedly reached 103 mph on the radar gun.ÌýAnd unlike most rocket arms his age, Strasburg was said to have pinpoint control. All you had to do was draft him and start counting the Cy Young awards.

Through stops in Harrisburg and Syracuse in 2009 and 2010, Strasburg made 11 starts, going 7-2 with a 1.30 ERA and 65 strikeouts.ÌýFuture Hall of Fame catcher Iván “Pudge” Rodriguez was with the Nats in 2010 and caught a bullpen session with Strasburg in spring training.ÌýSince Rodriguez had come over from the Tigers, he was asked whether the young pitcher compared to Justin Verlander.ÌýRodriguez said, “No — Nolan.” He meant Nolan Ryan, he of the seven no-hitters and more strikeouts than anybody in the history of the game. Rodriguez had been teammates with Ryan in Texas in 1993.

Rodriguez would have the honor of catching the young phenom in his debut, against Pittsburgh at Nationals Park. More than 200 media credentials were issued, and ESPN did all its shows all day from the ballpark.ÌýIt was suggested that it may have been the most anticipated debut in major league history. Nats team president Stan Kasten, who had been working in professional sports for decades, didn’t disagree: “I think it’s fair to say we’ve never seen anything like this in baseball.”

Rarely in a situation like this does the event outrun the hype.ÌýThis time, event sprinted past hype like Carl Lewis running the anchor leg in the 4×100 in the Olympics.

A fan base that didn’t have a team six years earlier filled all 40,315 seats and witnessed baseball history.ÌýAside from giving up a two-run homer to Delwyn Young in the fourth inning, Strasburg was nearly perfect.ÌýHe threw 94 pitches, 65 for strikes, and only eight balls were put in play. By the time he exited after seven innings, Strasburg had struck out 14 Pirates, including the last seven he faced.ÌýThe 14 strikeouts were one short of the major league record for a debut shared by Brooklyn’s Karl Spooner (1954) and Houston’s J.R. Richard (1971).

After the Nats’ 5-2 win, Rodriguez said Pirate batters had expressed their amazement to him about the kid’s speed. And then the real gushing began.

The injury

Veteran reporters who’d seen everything wrote that they’d never seen anything like it. Peter Kerasotis, of Florida Today, wrote, “It felt like seeing da Vinci’s first brush stroke on the Mona Lisa, or hearing the opening note of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, or smelling the first piece of falling marble from Michelangelo’s David.”

Others may have said it, but Albert Chen of Sports Illustrated seems to have gotten the credit for coining the term “Strasmas” — as in, for Nats fans, every fifth day would be Strasmas.

For a while it was. Over the next two months, I remember looking at the schedule, factoring in off days and rainouts and trying to figure out when the next Strasburg start would be. He was not quite as unhittable as he’d been June 8, but still awfully good.ÌýAnd then it ended for a while.

After being scratched from a previous start because of what was called forearm tightness while warming up, Strasburg pitched on Aug. 21.ÌýHe left early with an elbow issue that was diagnosed a day later as a “torn ulnar collateral ligament.” Tommy John surgery.ÌýSee ya in a year.

Strasburg made a few appearances at the end of the 2011 season and certainly looked ready to open up 2012. As a bonus, Strasburg would have Davey Johnson as his manager.

Johnson knew good young pitchers. He’d had a bunch of them with the Mets in the 1980s, including Dwight “Doc” Gooden, who had one of the best years in baseball history in 1985. Johnson said Strasburg reminded him of Gooden because of his combination of speed and control.

The shutdown

There was only one problem: his innings count. General Manager Mike Rizzo firmly believes in protecting pitchers coming off Tommy John surgery.ÌýStrasburg’s season would end after 180 innings, no matter what.ÌýRizzo had no intention of seeing Strasburg reinjure the elbow from overwork.

When it was announced in spring training, it didn’t seem to matter much.ÌýIt didn’t seem the Nats were going anywhere that season, so shutting Strasburg down in September wouldn’t be a big deal.ÌýThey’d done the same thing to Jordan Zimmermann the year before.

Problem was, by midseason the Nats looked playoff-worthy, and possibly good enough to make the World Series.ÌýInnings, schminnings — Strasburg has to pitch in the postseason, right? Wrong, said Rizzo.

To this day, you can still strike up a good bar argument over whether Strasburg should have been shut down.ÌýMaybe he’d have been the difference between winning and losing that heartbreaking five-game first-round series to St. Louis.ÌýWe’ll never know.

In the years since, you can’t argue that Strasburg hasn’t been good. Though he hasn’t been as durable as some would like and has never won more than 15 games in a season, he’s been an All-Star three times, came in third in the Cy Young voting in 2017 when he went 15-4 with a 2.52 ERA, and was the fastest to 1,500 strikeouts in history. When he signed a seven year, $175 million contract extension in 2016, it appeared the Nats were getting a bargain. If Max Scherzer hadn’t landed in Washington, Strasburg would be considered the greatest pitcher in franchise history.

Aside from Mike Trout, who somehow slid into the late part of the draft to the Angels, if you had to pick first again in 2009 you’d still pick Strasburg.ÌýBut if you still have images of that magical June night nine years ago, it’s hard to get your head around what he’s been. Awfully good just doesn’t seem quite good enough in comparison.ÌýThen again, realistically, how could it?

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Only two teams have the honor of playing meaningful games in the month of graduations, weddings and backyard barbecues.

Those teams get to play for the NBA championship. In the second half of this decade, the Golden State Warriors have had a standing reservation for the finals. They’re in for the fifth straight year, trying to make it four titles over the stretch. The last team to do that was the Boston Celtics from 1957 to 1961. And that team was so good, it won seven of the next eight — 1962-69. Only the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967 interrupted the streak.

What these Warriors are doing in the age of free agency may be equally amazing. Imagine being a kid growing up the in Bay Area and only knowing championship runs for the local pro hoops team. You know it’s probably a routine: open Christmas presents in December, watch the local hoops team play for the title in June.

The last time our local hoops team — known back then as the Bullets — played a game in June was over 40 years ago. On June 1, 1979, the Bullets were beaten four games to one in the NBA Finals by the Seattle Supersonics at the old Capital Centre. Since then, the NBA has witnessed the entire careers of Magic Johnson; Larry Bird; Isiah Thomas and the “Bad Boys” Pistons; Michael Jordan; Shaquille O’Neal; and Kobe Bryant. It’s probably seen almost all of LeBron James’ career as well.

You have to be middle-aged at least to remember D.C.’s basketball team to be one of the last two standing.

Well, I am middle-aged — actually the high end of that group — and I do remember the ’70s, when the Bullets were a finals participant four times! Once they got there, it wasn’t always a pleasant experience, but it beats packing up the season in April as the local hoopsters did this year and too many other years over the last 40.

So if you’re too young to remember (or old enough to enjoy a blast from the past), here’s how it went down during the days of disco in D.C. — when the Bullets were regulars in the NBA Finals.

1971

The Bullets were actually still based in Baltimore and were in the finals for the first time. The 1967 and ’68 drafts had given them a superstar duo of Earl “The Pearl” Monroe and Wes Unseld. And after coming up short in the playoffs against the New York Knicks the previous two years, the Bullets had finally broken through, beating the Knicks in a rough-and-tumble seven-game series in the Eastern Conference finals.

The problem they faced in the finals was that the other team’s superstar duo was even better. A trade before the season brought Oscar Robertson from Cincinnati to Milwaukee to team up with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And Bobby Dandridge wasn’t far behind on the talent scale. Those Bucks easily swept the Bullets in four lopsided games.

1975

While David Bowie was singing about ch-ch-changes, the Bullets had undergone plenty of them since being swept in ’71. The franchise had moved to D.C. to play at the brand-spanking new Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. (It had a Telscreen: “Watch instant replay at the game!”) Earl “The Pearl” was gone, and Elvin Hayes had teamed up with Unseld to become the new dynamic duo. These Bullets had been the best team in the NBA that season, winning 60 games.

Their finals opponent, the Warriors, had Rick Barry and a bunch of relative unknowns. And while the Bullets had taken out the defending champion Celtics in six games to get to the finals, the Warriors barely got by the Chicago Bulls in seven. It had been more than 30 years since the Redskins had delivered D.C.’s last pro championship. The Bullets were favored to end that drought. They didn’t help themselves with a scheduling mistake.

The Warriors’ home court and backup home court were both booked for other events. Because the Bullets had the home court advantage, they were offered a deal. Play the first game of the series on the road and then get the next three at home or play game one at home, schlep to California for Games 2 and 3 and then come back to Landover for Game 4.

Foolishly, they took option two. After the Warriors won the opener, at least a split on the road was a necessity. To this day, no NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series. Sure enough, the Bullets lost both on the road and were swept at home in Game 4. Barry was named Most Valuable Player in the series, averaging 29.5 points a game. But the depth of his team proved to be the real difference. The Bullets had leads in all four games and couldn’t finish any of them.

1978

Heading into their third finals in eight years, the Bullets still hadn’t won a finals game — 0 for 8. Unseld and Hayes were 10-year veterans, and the clock was ticking. On top of that, Phil Chenier, the team’s best shooter, had gone down with a back injury during the season. And with a regular season record of 44-38, these Bullets didn’t look like championship contenders. However, something clicked in the postseason.

The opening rounds of the playoffs in those days were a best-of-three series. Down went Atlanta in two. Then came San Antonio, a refugee from the folded American Basketball Association that was parked in the Eastern Conference. After taking a three-games-to-one lead, Bullets coach Dick Motta was asked for reaction to being on the brink of moving into the conference finals. That’s when Motta uttered the touchstone phrase that lives on to this day. Having watched local sportscaster Dan Cook in his San Antonio hotel room the night before, Motta quoted Cook, who had told his audience, “The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings.”

The Bullets would indeed need two more games to knock out the Spurs and then, as underdogs, beat Philadelphia to reach the finals. Their finals opponent was a bigger surprise. The Seattle Supersonics had started the season 5-17 before firing coach Bob Hopkins and replacing him with Lenny Wilkins. With the future Hall of Famer in charge, Seattle finished the year on a tear and got through Los Angeles, Portland and Denver to match up with the Bullets.

As in 1975, scheduling issues for the Sonics’ home court caused adjustments. This time though, the Bullets opened on the road, and when they lost Game 1, the needed split could be had at home. They were able to get that done eventually and wrapped up their one and only championship on June 7, 1978, exactly 40 years to the day before the Capitals won their first one. As radio announcer Frank Herzog counted down the final seconds of the deciding game on ²ÝÝ®´«Ã½, he said, “Warm up the fat lady. The Washington Bullets are going to win the NBA championship!”

1979

As defending champions, the Bullets finished with the league’s best regular season record at 54-28. However, although Unseld, Hayes and Dandridge, who’d been key in helping the Bullets win the championship as an addition, held up, the team’s young stars were hurt when it mattered most. Kevin Grevey was banged up, and Mitch Kupchak couldn’t play at all in the playoffs.

It took a pair of seven-game series with Atlanta and San Antonio to get back to the finals. Again Seattle was the opponent, but the Sonics were ready this time. The Bullets blew an 18-point lead at home in the opening game, but managed to win when Larry Wright was fouled by Dennis Johnson in the final seconds of a tied game. Wright hit two free throws to lock it up — the last time the Bullets won a finals game. Seattle took the next four and rode into the sunset.

Before the end of the month, Magic and Bird were in the NBA. Since then, like Moses, the Bullets have wandered in the desert for 40 years.

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I say it’s about…

A franchise born as a necessity for the Capital Centre, which opened in December of 1973 for the Capital Bullets. The hockey team got its name on Jan. 22, 1974 when owner Abe Pollin revealed that “Capitals” had emerged as a contest winner, beating out Comets, Pandas, Metros and, believe it or not, Eagles.

It’s about staying power stronger than it’s expansion partner, the Kansas City Scouts. After two years, they split for Colorado to become the Rockies and, four years later, left for New Jersey to become the Devils.

It’s about Ron Weber, the team’s first and longest-serving radio voice. Long before we had statistics at our fingertips on the internet, Ron spent the hours before face off meticulously calculating numbers that came across the AM airwaves on ²ÝÝ®´«Ã½ on cold winter nights.

It’s about Jack Doninger and Warner Wolf as the early TV voices on ²ÝÝ®´«Ã½ TV. Like most of us Washingtonians at the time, Warner wondered, “Hey Jack, what’s the difference between the red line and blue line?”

It’s about the more hockey-educated voices who replaced them on the “Channel you cheer for” — Mike Fornes and Al Koken.

It’s about the Capitals’ first captain, Yvon Labre, who wore No. 7 and came to town in the same year as the city’s most celebrated No. 7, Joe Theismann. But while Joey T quarterbacked two Super Bowl teams, Labre never played on a winning team here. As a tribute to his talent, his number was the first retired by the organization.

It’s about the Capitals’ first draft pick, Greg Joly, whose career was anything but (jolly, that is). After 98 games in a Caps uniform, he was dealt to Detroit for Bryan “Bugsy” Watson, an enforcer who knew his way to the penalty box and wore every fight on his scarred face.

It’s about Ron Low and Bernie Wolfe, who did what they could to keep pucks out of the net in the early days. Bernie’s talents were recognized by the Hall of Fame — the D.C. Jewish Hall of Fame.

It’s about Garnett “Ace” Bailey, whose nickname indicated luck, but had the misfortune of being on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.

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It’s about Bobby Carpenter from Beverly, Massachusetts, who became the first American-born player to score 50 goals in a season.

It’s about Dino Ciccarelli, a flashy scorer, who was overshadowed in the Caps’ first run to the Eastern Conference Final by a journeyman named John Druce, as in “Druce on the loose,” scoring goals by parking himself in front of the net.

It’s about men named Murray — Bryan, who started the season as the Caps coach, then lost the job to his brother Terry, who took the torch and that team to the Eastern Final.

It’s about a decade of underachieving and blowing leads and an endless stream of Tony Kornheiser columns that described the Caps as “choking dogs.”

It’s about Jim Carey — the goalie, not the actor. A goalie who fell off the face of the earth as fast as the actor has in recent years.

It’s about Carey’s replacement, Olaf Kolizig — “Olie the goalie,” who stood on his head and led the Capitals to their unexpected first appearance in the Stanley Cup Final 20 years ago.

It’s about George McPhee and Ron Wilson, the first-year duo that built that team and never again made the magic happen here.

It’s about Ted Leonsis, one of the early makers of internet magic, who bought the team at the end of the century looking to make a quick splash like AOL.

It’s about Jaromir Jagr, one of Ted’s early moves to make that splash. Eventually, it was a flush, with Jagr shipped out of town not long after an early playoff exit against Tampa Bay, where he complained that the other team had a goalie.

It’s about Jeff Halpern, the only Capital born in Washington D.C., who carved out a nice career against long odds.

It’s about a slew of coaches who came and went, including former stars Adam Oates and Dale Hunter, before Barry Trotz finally delivered.

But more than anything, of more than 500 players listed alphabetically from Keith Acton to Dainus Zubrus, it’s about the man in the middle of the list, Alex Ovechkin. A year ago he seemed destined to join the, “Yeah but he never won” fraternity of Ted Williams, Ernie Banks, Dan Marino and Charles Barkley.

Now he’s a champion. And in sports, that’s what it’s all about.

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I’m reminded of that joke by a report that the baseball bullpen car may be making a comeback.Ìý According to , players have suggested bringing it back to help speed up the game.

There was a time when relief pitchers were brought in from the bullpen in a car or some form of a modified golf cart. Depending on the team, the bullpen vehicle also served as a moneymaker. As a kid going to Senators games at RFK Stadium in the 1960s and early ‘70s, I saw relievers arrive in a red Corvette convertible sponsored by Sport Chevrolet.

I asked my dad why they couldn’t just walk in from the “pen,” just past center field, and I don’t remember getting a great answer. It really seemed silly when you consider pitchers, even then, used running drills to stay in shape. Would a stroll in from the bullpen really tire a pitcher out?

It’s not like it was part of the tradition of the grand old game. Major league baseball dates back to 1869, decades before Henry Ford started rolling cars off the assembly line.ÌýIt seems, according to Paul Lukas, who tracks these kind of things for , the bullpen car dates back to 1950 when the Cleveland Indians, owned by famed showman Bill Veeck, started using a little red car to drive pitchers to the mound. Other teams followed using cars, but it was the Milwaukee Braves who were not only the first known National League team to use bullpen transport but took it to another level.

On June 23, 1959, visiting pitcher Hal Jeffcoat of the St. Louis Cardinals was delivered to the mound by a driver with a chauffeur’s uniform on a Harley-Davidson Topper scooter. Never mind being driven by car to the warning track along the third-base line — the scooter could be driven across the grass and directly to the mound.ÌýNo walking required.

It seemed to work well for the Braves, not so much for the Jeffcoat and the Cardinals. Bob Wolf wrote that day in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “All Jeffcoat got for his trouble was the distinction of being the first ride in the Braves’ new bullpen perambulator. He was bashed for 11 hits and six runs, and left under heavy fire in the sixth.”

By the 1970s, most teams had bullpen vehicles, which were starting to roll up the miles. During the decade, relief specialists became a bigger part of baseball and the strategy involved. Before that, only pitchers that were getting shelled were pulled for relievers, and nobody kept track of pitch counts.

Sparky Anderson, the manager of the great “Big Red Machine” teams of the mid-70’s in Cincinnati picked up the nickname “Captain Hook” for his frequent pitching changes. The sight of the modified golf cart with the big plastic Reds cap on top became a common sight at Riverfront Stadium.

But now it’s gone like the local Fotomat. So where did the bullpen vehicle go?

Nobody seems to know exactly how and why they disappeared, but sometime during the 1980s, pitchers went back to arriving at the mound the old fashioned way — walking. The Yankees were among the last to transport relievers, and they did it in a pinstriped Datsun (an auto brand that’s also disappeared), but it was done away with when Bronx rats chewed up vital mechanical components of the car.

And the Mariners, who customized their bullpen vehicle into a boat on wheels and called it the M.S. Relief, decided it was too much trouble. Mariners closer Bill Caudill, who apparently didn’t feel like he needed such a silly-looking ride, hid the keys to it, causing a brief delay to the start of the game on Opening Day 1982.

Whether a return of the bullpen vehicle would speed up the game remains to be seen, but for some of us it would be a ride down memory lane.

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WASHINGTON — I’m 7 years old and my dad takes me to the D.C. Stadium. My first game. I’m going in this long, dark tunnel underneath the stands, holding his hand. We walk out of the tunnel into the light. It’s huge! How green the grass was, brown the dirt. We had a black-and-white TV, so this was the first game I ever saw in color. Sat there the whole game next to my dad. He taught me how to keep score. Best day ever.

Those words should sound familiar.

With a few alterations, they come from the cattle drive scene in Billy Crystal’s 1991 movie “City Slickers.” Crystal and his buddies, played by Bruno Kirby and Daniel Stern (a local who graduated a year ahead of me at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School), are talking about their best and worst days. I substituted D.C. Stadium for Yankee Stadium, which is the only thing that differs from my experience as a 7-year-old with my dad to Crystal’s with his. Everything else for me was exactly the way it was for Crystal, who over the years, has said the story he told in the movie was just what he experienced in real life.

D.C. Stadium was in just its fifth season as home of the Washington Senators when I walked in with my dad on that beautiful, spring Saturday afternoon in 1966. The Boston Red Sox were in town and in the program my dad bought to keep score, was the roster of each team. The Sox had two brothers on the roster — Tony and Billy Conigliaro. I thought that was cool. Kind of like Bobby and Richie Cowherd, who I hung out with after school.

If you’re a Washingtonian, you may have similar memories of walking for the first time into the same stadium that was renamed in honor of Robert F. Kennedy in 1969, a year after his death.

But unless you’re a Baby Boomer like me, it more likely involves football, not baseball. There was a sad Rosemary Woods-like gap of 33 years without a baseball tenant at RFK starting in 1971.

Yet, the fact that RFK still stood for all those years may be the biggest reason we’ve had Major League baseball back in town for the last 13 seasons.

The stadium was the first of its kind when it opened for the 1961 Redskins season: a multipurpose facility, seating 45,000 for baseball. An additional 3,000 temporary seats could be rolled in for football. A news release described it as “America’s newest stadium — and the world’s best!”

Among its features — 45 bathrooms and a “giant electric scoreboard (240-feet wide, 40-feet high) which flashed messages to the crowd.” Cost? $22 million. Hey, we’re talking 1961 dollars here.

Two things about the stadium’s first baseball tenant:

Number one — they were the replacement Washington Senators. The original team left town after the 1960 season to become the Minnesota Twins. That team was immediately replaced by the expansion Senators. The Twins went to the World Series in 1965, the new Senators were terrible. It was like replacing a yacht with a rowboat, but at least it still floated.

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By ’62, D.C. Stadium was open for baseball business. The first game was played on April 9 and President John F. Kennedy threw out the first ball. Bennie Daniels pitched the Senators to a 4-1 win over Detroit. They won only 59 games the rest of the season, and it didn’t get much better anytime soon. “Off the Floor-in ’64!” was the headline on the cover of the team’s yearbook two years later. They did, however, deliver on the boast. The Kansas City Athletics finished dead last in the American league with 57 wins, five behind the second-to-last place Senators.

Finally, after yet another last-place finish in 1968, hope arrived in the form of the “Splendid Splinter.” Ted Williams, the last man to hit .400 and arguably the greatest hitter of all time, was hired to manage the Senators in 1969. There was talent on that team. Frank Howard had led the American league with 44 home runs in ’68. Ed Brinkman and Ken McMullen made for a strong left side of the infield and Dick Bosman was emerging as a fine young pitcher.

For a year it was magic. Williams did what no manager had come close to doing with the expansion Senators. He made them winners. The ’69 Senators finished 86-76 — a 21-win jump from the year before. Attendance went from 546,000 to 918,000. The future could not have looked brighter.

Then it all fell apart.

The Senators slunk back to last place in 1970 and attendance dropped. Owner Bob Short, looking for a drawing card, traded a slew of players including Brinkman, up-and-coming third baseman Aurelio Rodriguez and pitcher Joe Coleman, who would go on to be a 20-game winner twice to Detroit for Denny McLain. Three seasons earlier, McLain had won 31 games, but he came to Washington washed up.

The 1971 season featured McLain losing 22 games and the Senators finishing 38-and-a-half games out of first place. It paved the way for one of the most bitter moments in D.C. sports history.

In September 1971, Short received permission from the other American League owners to move the team to Texas. The last Senators game was played on the last day of the month against the Yankees at RFK.

With the help of a Howard homer, the Senators led 7-5 with two outs in the ninth. One more out and at least there would be a win to close out the Senators’ 10th and final season at RFK. But relief pitcher Joe Grzenda never got to try to get that final out. The floodgates of a fed-up fan base opened. They stormed the field, ripping up pieces of the infield and stealing players’ caps.

With no chance of order being restored, umpire Jim Honochick had to award the game to the Yankees as a forfeit, which goes in the record books as a 9-0 loss.

In between the ’62 opening-game merriment and the mayhem of the ’71 finale, the stadium hosted two All-Star Games.

The first was in ’62 and won by the National League 8-4. D.C. native Maury Wills, who starred in three sports at Cardozo High School was the game’s MVP after almost not getting into the ballpark that day. The security guard at the visitors clubhouse didn’t recognize Wills and didn’t believe the 5-foot, 11-inch, 170 pound Wills was a player, much less an All-Star. He finally talked his way in and obviously played well enough to be the star of stars. That season, Wills stole a record 104 bases for the Dodgers.

The second All-Star Game in Washington (and the last until we get another one in 2018) was played in 1969 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Major League Baseball. The 9-3 National League victory was hardly memorable for the score, despite Howard homering for the losing team in his home ballpark.

But it’s memorable for being the last All-Star Game played in the daytime. It was scheduled for the usual Tuesday night in July, but torrential rain flooded the dugouts and forced it to be pushed to the following afternoon.

McLain — then still at the top of his game and still pitching for Detroit — was the scheduled starter. But when the game was postponed, he flew his own plane home for, get this, a Wednesday morning dental appointment. He figured he could make it back in time to start the game the in the afternoon.

But the capping of nine teeth took longer than expected and he was late getting back. When McLain finally entered the game in the fourth inning, it was out of hand. Willie McCovey took MVP honors with two home runs.

After the Senators’ departure, RFK Stadium represented the stalking horse for every team looking for its city to build them a new stadium. The San Diego Padres came close to relocating here in 1973. Topps even printed baseball cards of Padres players with the word “Washington” underneath the name. Two rounds of expansion in the late ’80s and early ’90s were supposed to bring a team back to Washington, but it didn’t happen. There was a deal to bring the Astros here, which finally fell through when Houston agreed to build the team a new ballpark.

Baseball fans here were left with scraps like preseason exhibition games, which never really drew much excitement. A rare exception was the Cracker Jack’s Old Timers Classic, played annually for several years at RFK.

It was the first one that made it special. The oldest of old timers, Luke Appling, was 75 years-old when he homered off Warren Spahn in 1982. Sure the left field fence was only 260 feet away. Nobody cared. It was a rare moment of hardball fun during a three-decade period of baseball-less heartbreak.

Finally, in 2004, word came that baseball was coming back, and a big reason was the on-the-move Montreal Expos had a place to go to.

By that time, the Redskins had been in their new stadium for nearly a decade and only D.C. United and a handful of annual college football games was keeping RFK from being a ghost town. But it was still standing.

With three years needed to erect a new ballpark for the newly named Nationals, RFK was given a minor baseball face-lift and gave the team a place to park itself.

From President George Bush throwing out the first ball on April 14, 2005 before a win over the Arizona Diamondbacks to a victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in the stadium finale on Sept. 23, 2007, RFK was finally home again for Major League Baseball.

Was it a great ballpark? No. Not by modern standards, or even nostalgic standards like Fenway Park or Wrigley Field.

Just ask Ryan Zimmerman. The only current National to call RFK home put it this way before heading to Nationals Park, which he christened with a walk-off homer in the first game there in 2008.

“I’m not going to say we’re going to miss [RFK], because we won’t,” he said. “They did a great job with what they had here to make it, I guess, as good as they could for three years.”

That may be Zim’s view, but for some of us the magical memories of RFK are as bright as what I saw when I walked out of that stadium tunnel more than 50 years ago. Best day ever.

• Part 1: Baseball’s best moments at RFK
• Part 2: Best entertainment moments in RFK history
• Part 3: Best Redskins moments at RFK
• Part 4: Best soccer moments at RFKÌý
• Part 5: What’s next for the RFK site?

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