ALEXANDRIA – Washington is a company town where yes there are politics but one might be surprised to know there is less partisanship than you might expect. Staff members, politicians, members of the media live in the same nationhood’s, go to dinner at the restaurants, and shopping centers.
Members of government Republican and Democratic families live together. Their kids go to the same schools, they play together, and the annual Congressional baseball game is fun. Bragging rights for a whole year goes to the winner and the money they raise goes to charity.
The annual baseball game dates back to 1909.
The shooting in Alexandria, Va. won’t stop the annual Congressional Baseball Game from being played on Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said to cheers.
“Members gave standing ovation when Speaker Ryan announced that tomorrow’s charity baseball game would still go on,” CNN’s Deirdre Walsh tweeted.
The game is set for 7:05 p.m. tonight at Nationals Park. The 40 thousand seat stadium is located at 1500 South Capitol Street just a little over 20-minute walk from the Capitol building.
Many members of Congress and their staff are season ticket holders for the Nationals and the team is used to working with law enforcement groups from the Secret Service to Washington D.C. local police.
Members of the team often take time to give the members of Congress pointers. It is very much a community, there is no Democrats or Republicans there are just baseball fans.
The same is the case over at the Verizon Center the home of the Capitals and the Wizards. You will see players and lawmakers talking and joking around.
Many staff members and members of Congress are from states that don’t have professional teams. So, they become fans of the Washington, D.C. teams.
The Nationals faced the Braves yesterday at Nationals Park, in afternoon game that normally would have had some folks from the Hill sneaking out early and heading to the park to watch a baseball game and have some fun. The two teams observed a moment of silence for the those involved in the shooting.
During a solemn address to the chamber, Ryan injected a moment of levity – joking that wounded Congressman Steve Scalise’s biggest complaint will be having to spend time on the disabled list.
“Knowing Steve Scalise as we all do, he is likely really frustrated that he’s not going to be able to play in the baseball game,” Ryan said.
The quotes used in the story came from Associated Press. Video from The Hotspots Network – checkout their site for cool video content.
