20 years ago today, a new era of Washington baseball began

On a sunny, breezy, April afternoon in Philadelphia exactly 20 years ago, a major league ballclub wearing navy blue caps with a curly W logo and gray jerseys with “Washington” emblazoned across the chest took the field, embarking on a brand-new journey many never believed would come to fruition.

For anyone who suffered through 33 long years without baseball in the nation’s capital, the mere sight of a team representing D.C. in a real major league game was both unbelievable and emotional.

Most fans best remember April 14, 2005, the night Frank Howard and the 1971 Senators ceremoniously handed over their gloves to the newly renamed Nationals, George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch and RFK Stadium bounced and swayed like it hadn’t in a generation. But the first game in Nats history came 10 days prior at Citizens Bank Park on April 4, 2005.

The occasion started off in grand fashion. Brad Wilkerson was the first batter in club history and immediately recorded the first hit in club history, a single over second baseman Placido Polanco’s head. One inning later, Nick Johnson and Vinny Castilla each singled, then the latter scored on Terrmel Sledge’s RBI groundout to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

Sledge, a late addition to manager Frank Robinson’s lineup after Ryan Church was scratched with a groin strain, would make history again in the top of the sixth when he launched a two-run homer to right off Jon Lieber. (Side note: The first home run in Nationals history was also Sledge’s only home run in a Nationals uniform.)

Those were the highlights, but sadly they were overtaken by lowlights. Liván Hernández, who along with closer Chad Cordero would go on to represent the team at the All-Star Game that summer, was roughed up for seven runs in only 4 2/3 innings (the second-shortest start of his season). Sledge, with a chance to give the Nats the lead with the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, would ground into a killer 4-6-3 double play induced by reliever Ryan Madson. The Phillies would win, 8-4.

“I like the way we battled all the way,” Robinson said afterward. “We didn’t get the key hits, but I liked the offense. Overall, I feel good about it, other than we didn’t win.”

Two nights later, Wilkerson hit for the cycle and the Nationals won for the first time. And by July 4, this hastily assembled roster playing in a rickety old stadium with the front office working out of trailers in the parking lot, took the field to a sellout crowd at RFK Stadium as the proud owners of a 50-31 record, first place in the NL East.

It was everything a long-suffering Washington fan could have dreamed of. Baseball wasn’t just back in town, this plucky new team was careening toward the city’s first pennant race since 1945. More than 2.7 million fans had turned the old ballpark into the hottest summer ticket in town.

And then reality struck, and it struck hard. The Nats lost 18 of their next 23 games, falling out of first place. A power-starved lineup finally came back to haunt them. A pitching staff that carried them for months couldn’t sustain it through the finish line.

When it all ended Oct. 2, appropriately enough with another loss to the Phillies, the team that had gone 50-31 in the first half of the season had gone 31-50 in the second half. They finished with a .500 record, the only team in club history to do that. They also finished in last place in a very competitive NL East, nine games behind the division champion Braves.

The Nationals wouldn’t sniff a winning record, let alone a pennant race, again until 2012. That’s when they began an eight-year run of success that included four division titles, five postseason berths, a boatload of individual awards and of course the crowning achievement: the 2019 World Series championship.

As glorious as that October run was, there will always be a segment of fans, media members and even longtime team employees who insist the inaugural 2005 season was actually more memorable. Everything was so fresh, so unexpected, so joyous. And it was the first. You always remember the first.

Which is why this weekend the Nationals will invite everyone to remember the first team in club history with a special celebration honoring the 2005 roster. Cordero, Brian Schneider, John Patterson, Jamey Carroll and Ryan Zimmerman (who debuted that September) will be on hand for this series against the Diamondbacks, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the day it all began. They’ll all be inducted into the Nationals Park Ring of Honor prior to Saturday’s game, a special distinction for a special group.

No, that wasn’t the best team in Nats history. Nor did it have the star power later teams would boast.

But nothing that has transpired since would have been possible if not for that lovable group. The group that 20 years ago today proudly took the field wearing “Washington” across their chests and forever changed what it meant to be a baseball fan in the nation’s capital.