Bio

The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C., United States. The Nationals are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball’s National League. The team moved into the newly-built Nationals Park in 2008, after playing their first three seasons in RFK Stadium. The new park is located in Southeast D.C. near the Anacostia River and with views of the Capitol.

The Nationals name originates from the two former Washington baseball teams who held the same name (used interchangeably with Senators). They are nicknamed “the Nats,” a shortened version of the Nationals name that was also used by the old D.C. teams.

An expansion franchise, the club was founded in Montreal, Quebec in 1969. The then-Montreal Expos were the first major league team in Canada. They played their home games at Jarry Park Stadium and later in Olympic Stadium. The team saw very little success, their most successful season coming in the strike-shortened season of 1994. They had the best record in baseball when the season was cut short, and were regarded by many to have been the team to beat that year. This may have been the death blow for baseball in Montreal, although the team did stay in Quebec for 10 more seasons. After the 2001 season, Major League Baseball even considered shutting the team down (along with either the Minnesota Twins or the Tampa Bay Devil Rays). The team finally left before the 2005 season, moving to Washington to become the Nationals. This was the first complete name change for a relocating team in Major League Baseball since 1972, when the Washington Senators left D.C. to become the Texas Rangers. They are one of three teams (the others being the aforementioned Rangers and the Seattle Mariners) never to have played in a World Series, never having officially won a league championship. They won a division championship, and advanced to the National League Championship Series, in their only playoff appearance, which was under the strange circumstances of the strike-shortened 1981 season.