Who did you really root for in 1961?

[Brownieand45sfan]

As a non-Washingtonian I was curious whether Senators fans were happy or mad when the Twins won the AL pennant so soon after leaving D.C. At least on this board, the answer was .. universally happy (see thread just below).

So I would like to take my curiosity one step further and ask, Who did you really root for in 1961, the Twins or the new Senators?

[Aa3rt]

I've mentioned it here in the Senators forum a couple of times-when the original Senators moved I was a lad of 7.

My maternal grandfather was a fan of the original franchise and a big admirer of Walter Johnson. He lost his team, and his interest in baseball, when Calvin moved the Senators.

In the naivete of youth, I became a fan of the expansion franchise. It was a couple of years later before I became fully cognizant of the difference, that the "real" Senators had departed to the Land of 10,000 Lakes in 1960, and Washington was saddled with a ragtag bunch of has beens and never weres masquerading as a major league baseball team.

(I say that as someone who grew up rooting for that ragtag bunch and still misses them-the Nationals may play like the Senators of old, but they can't replace them.)

I'm a little too young to harbor any ill-will towards Calvin Griffith, and in retrospect, can understand why he felt he had to move the franchise. The expansion Senators were another story-I still believe that Bob :grouchy Short started counting that Texas oil money the day he acquired the expansion team.

[welch]

I was 12 when the Old Senators played their last game, and had been a Nats fan even before I could say "Mickey Vernon".

I rooted for the New Senators, feeling robbed, certainly, because the 1960 Senators were pretty good and we -- the while town -- had suffered through all those bad seasons after 1952.

When Calvin Griffith stole away, I rooted for the New Senators. (see David Gough's, "They've Stolen our Team"). It felt different...I had had more attachment to the old team, but they were no longer our team.

[PlayJay]

...and how that bitterness grew exponentially as the Twins marched to the pennant in 1965... :(