Along the way, the family encountered hungry and disenchanted people returning from the Oklahoma Territory, so they decided to settle in Missouri.

[3] When Griffith was a small child, his father was killed in a hunting accident when fellow hunters mistook him for a deer.

Fearing a malaria epidemic that was sweeping through the area, the Griffith family moved to Bloomington, Illinois.

Griffith later found out that the boy who purchased the ball only spent a quarter, keeping the leftover dollar.

[7] Griffith broke into organized baseball late in the 1887 with the local Bloomington club in the Central Interstate League.

Clark pitched for Milwaukee for three seasons before Charlie Comiskey convinced him to join the major leagues.

The leagues were unstable; he had 30 wins for Oakland when the club disbanded in August 1893, and Griffith performed on stage in Wild West variety shows in San Francisco's Barbary Coast red-light district before signing with the Chicago Colts in early September.

[9] Griffith began the following season with the Colts, and spent the rest of his playing career in the major leagues.

[10] Cap Anson was the player-manager of the Colts during Griffith's tenure and he utilized a rotation of only three starting pitchers.

By modifying the grip of a curveball, he threw a pitch similar to the screwball that Christy Mathewson had developed.

[10] In 1894, Griffith began a string of six consecutive seasons with 20 or more victories, compiling a 21–14 record and 4.92 earned run average (ERA).

He won 20 games for the final time in his career and led the White Stockings to the first AL pennant with an 83–53 record.

The Highlanders had just moved from Baltimore, and Johnson knew that for the league to be successful, it needed a strong franchise in the nation's biggest city.

Principal owner Thomas C. Noyes had been friends with Griffith, and asked one of his minority partners, Ed Walsh, to come to Washington as manager in 1912.

To entertain the fans, Griffith hired Nick Altrock as a first base coach in his first season with Washington.

[15] Griffith also engineered one of the biggest turnarounds in major league history, leading the Senators to second place.

Through this time, Griffith frequently clashed with the Senators executives, who were sometimes unwilling to spend the money he felt necessary to make the team a consistent winner.

[14] In late 1919, frustrated by continued resistance on the board, Griffith joined forces with Philadelphia grain broker William Richardson, a close friend of Mack's, to buy controlling interest in the Senators.

However, the Washington Redskins (who moved into the stadium in 1937 from Boston) and other tenants enabled him to turn a profit for 21 straight years.

Griffith's wagers appeared to pay off, as the Senators won the pennant in both years under their new youthful managers.

[17] He also leaned heavily on Joe Cambria, a scout who frequently found talented Cuban players for Griffith.

[14] Ironically given his faith in young players, Griffith either would not or could not spend money on a farm system, preferring to mine prospects from independent minor league teams.

This was a major reason why the Senators were unable to put together a consistent winner, especially after World War II.

When Richardson died in 1942, his twin brother, George, inherited his stake and voiced full confidence in Griffith.

In 1949, after a string of mostly humdrum seasons, the Richardson estate sold its stake to John Jachym, a businessman who had been a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers.

He was particularly angered when Jachym expressed his fondness for longtime Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey, whom Griffith had long detested.

When Jachym proposed buying the Buffalo Bisons of the International League, which would have given the Senators a Triple-A team for the first time, Griffith turned the request down out of hand.

[14] In 1939, sportswriter Bob Considine expressed disappointment that Griffith had not already been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He had also begun a tradition of presidents throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a season's first Opening Day game, which started with William Howard Taft.

Calvin took over the team after his uncle's death and led efforts to have the club moved to Minnesota and become the Twins.