On April 5, 1987, the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets played what would be their final spring training game before the start of the 1987 season. The significance of what happened on the field was on par with your average spring training game, which is to say it had no meaning whatsoever. What did matter was one number: 45,614. That was the number of tickets for sale, all of which were sold. So why did 45,614 people buy tickets to see the final spring training game of 1987? Because the game wasn’t played in Florida or Arizona, it was played in Washington, D.C.



Sixteen years earlier the Washington Senators had packed up and left for Dallas, Texas, and the Washington area had been without a team ever since. Washington baseball fans were eager to prove to Major League Baseball they deserved a team and this exhibition game was their chance. Old RFK Stadium had been hurriedly refitted for baseball, and fans were encouraged to come show the muckety-mucks in charge at...