1949 Washington Senators season

The 1949 Washington Senators, the 49th season of the Major League Baseball franchise, won 50 games, lost 104, and finished in eighth place in the American League. It was the worst showing by the Washington club in 40 years, since the 1909 Senators lost 110 games. The team was managed by Joe Kuhel; it played its home games at Griffith Stadium, where it drew 770,745 fans, seventh in the circuit.
The Senators actually won 25 of their first 45 games and stood in third place after Sunday, June 5, 1949. But they would win only 25 games more all season, playing at an abysmal.229 rate over their last 109 contests. In today's 162-game schedule, that would have resulted in a 37–125 mark, surpassing the 1962 Mets' record for futility. At year's end, manager Kuhel would be replaced by Bucky Harris, the Senators' 1924 "boy wonder" manager, now 53, returning for a third term as skipper of the Senators.

Offseason

October 4, 1948: John Sullivan, Tom Ferrick and $25,000 were traded by the Senators to the St. Louis Browns for Sam Dente.
Prior to 1949 season: Jim Pearce was signed as a free agent by the Senators.

Regular season

On September 28, Senators pitcher Ray Scarborough ended Ted Williams' streak of most consecutive games reaching base safely at 84 games. Scarborough gave up just four hits in a 4–1 complete game win over the Boston Red Sox. Johnny Pesky made the final out with Williams on deck.

Notable transactions

May 24, 1949: Milo Candini was traded by the Senators to the Oakland Oaks for Lloyd Hittle.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C		109	321	87	.271	2	42
1B	Eddie Robinson	143	527	155	.294	18	78
2B	Al Kozar	105	350	94	.269	4	31
SS		153	590	161	.273	1	53
3B	Eddie Yost	124	435	110	.253	9	45
OF	Gil Coan	111	358	78	.218	3	25
OF	Bud Stewart	118	388	110	.284	8	43
OF	Clyde Vollmer	129	443	112	.253	14	59

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Sherry Robertson	110	374	94	.251	11	42
Sam Mele	78	264	64	.242	3	25
Buddy Lewis	95	257	63	.245	3	28
Jake Early	53	138	34	.246	1	11
	40	129	36	.279	1	11
Mark Christman	49	112	24	.214	3	18
John Simmons	62	93	20	.215	0	5
Ralph Weigel	34	60	14	.233	0	4
Hal Keller	3	3	1	.333	0	0
Herman Reich	2	2	0	.000	0	0
Jay Difani	2	1	1	1.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Sid Hudson	40	209.0	8	17*	4.22	54
	34	199.2	13	11	4.60	81
	34	160.2	6	17*	5.43	52
Mickey Harris	23	129.0	2	12	5.16	54
Walt Masterson	10	53.0	3	2	3.23	17
Dizzy Sutherland	1	1.0	0	1	45.00	0

Tied with Ned Garver

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	36	109.0	5	7	4.21	32
Joe Haynes	37	96.1	2	9	6.26	19
Dick Weik	27	95.1	3	12	5.38	58
Mickey Haefner	19	91.2	5	5	4.42	23
Forrest Thompson	9	16.1	1	3	4.41	8
	2	5.1	0	1	8.44	1

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Dick Welteroth	52	2	5	2	7.36	37
Al Gettel	16	0	2	1	5.45	7
	13	0	0	0	4.72	5
	3	0	0	1	4.76	1
	2	0	0	0	11.37	1
Ed Klieman	2	0	0	0	18.00	1