{"exhibit":{"title":"Was baseball ever played on the Mall?","description":"<p>For nearly 150 years, spectators could watch baseball played on the Mall. The earliest semi-professional baseball clubs were formed by federal employees. Long before DC hosted a Major League team, the Senators played by the Capitol and the Nationals by the White House. Throughout the 1900s, people who worked on or near the Mall also played baseball there, including Congressional pages, female federal workers during World War I, and employees of local businesses. Today, many softball teams play near the Washington Monument and in West Potomac Park.<\/p>","credits":"","featured":0,"public":1,"theme":"","theme_options":null,"slug":"baseball","added":"2013-07-09 11:04:59","modified":"2014-01-24 15:14:53","owner_id":5,"use_summary_page":1,"cover_image_file_id":null,"id":39},"item":{"item_type_id":15,"collection_id":null,"featured":0,"public":1,"added":"2013-07-12 02:38:24","modified":"2015-09-02 14:10:03","owner_id":5,"id":370}}