The Washington Nationals of the 1870s were the first important baseball club in the capital city of the United States. They competed briefly in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (commonly referred to as the National Association),[a] the first fully-professional sports league in baseball. The Nationals are considered a major-league team by those who count the National Association as a major league. Several other baseball clubs based in Washington, D.C., have also used the historic name Nationals.
The team played their home games at the Nationals Grounds and the Olympics Grounds. They joined the National Association in 1872, playing 11 games that year, and 39 more games in 1873,[1] although some sources recognize the 1873 team as a different franchise named the Washington Blue Legs.[2] Following poor on-field results over that period, that team disbanded after the 1873 season. Another Nationals team was fielded with some of the same players for the 1875 season, but folded before the end of the season.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).