RFK Stadium and the Fans Who Stole the Final Game
On September 30, 1971, the Washington Senators led the Yankees 7-5 with two outs in the ninth. One out from a victory in their final game, several hundred fans stormed the field and stole everything they could carry.
D.C. Stadium opened in 1962 as a concrete multipurpose bowl on the east bank of the Anacostia River. It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969, after the assassinated senator. It was the home of the expansion Washington Senators for their entire 10-year existence, from 1962 to 1971.
The Senators were bad. They finished last or next-to-last in nine of their ten seasons. Attendance was poor. Owner Bob Short, who had bought the team in 1969, began agitating to move the franchise almost immediately. By 1971, he had secured approval to relocate the team to Arlington, Texas, where they would become the Texas Rangers.
The final game at RFK Stadium, on September 30, 1971, became one of the most chaotic events in baseball history. The Senators led the Yankees 7-5 with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, one out away from a victory in their final game. Then several hundred fans stormed the field. They tore up the bases. They pulled up home plate. They ripped out pieces of turf. They stole anything they could carry. The field was declared unplayable, and the umpires forfeited the game to the Yankees.
RFK Stadium sat largely empty for decades. It hosted the return of baseball briefly when the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington in 2005 and became the Nationals, playing at RFK for three seasons before moving to Nationals Park in 2008. The stadium deteriorated visibly in its final years, its concrete crumbling and its infrastructure failing. Demolition began in 2024 and was completed in 2025. The site is slated for redevelopment.