One out from victory

With banners as a backdrop to protest team owner Bob Short, Dick Bosman pitches against the New York Yankees 53 years ago today as the old Washington Senators play their final game at RFK Stadium before moving to Texas.

The Thursday night crowd is announced at 14,460 with a few thousand more crashing the gates.

The fans – fuming over Short’s pending move to Arlington, Texas – see their woebegone Senators leading 7-5 before storming the field with two outs in the top of the ninth inning.

The impromptu riot forces the umpires to declare a forfeit victory for the Yankees.

Despite the forfeit, the stats count for the game, leaving Tommy McCraw’s two-out, RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Senators’ final hit at RFK Stadium.

The last homer fittingly comes off the bat of Washington’s Frank Howard, a solo drive off Mike Kekich to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning and cut New York’s lead to 5-2.

The homer, which slams off the back wall of the bullpen beyond left field, is Howard’s 26th of the season and his 237th in seven seasons with Washington.

“This is utopia,” Howard tells the Washington Post after the game. “This is the greatest thrill of my life. What would top it?”

Well, maybe “utopia” for Howard and the Senators if their fans do not storm the field before the final out is made and force the Senators to forfeit a victory they are so close to earning.

Now that might have been nice.