Congressional baseball game offers longstanding traditions, and plenty of confusion

There were two 1s. Three 3s. Three 4s. One 04. Three 6s. Two 06s. Two 7s. Two 07s. 2 9s. And three 12s. 

No. I wasn’t trying to decipher computer programming code. 

This wasn’t a routing number for a checking account.

Nor was I communicating in hexadecimals.

I was staring at these numbers to unravel the GOP’s uniform numbers for the annual Congressional baseball game at Nats Park.

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Congressional Republicans and Democrats play each other in the event. It’s a custom dating back to 1909. No other athletic team in any sport on the planet allows players on the same team to wear the same numbers. But since this is Congress, lawmakers get to choose whatever uniform number they want. 

On the Republican team, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Rep. Brad Finstad (R-MN) both wear number one. Reps. Chuck Flesichmann (R-TN), Greg Murphy (R-NC) and Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) don number three.

You get the idea. 

Old-time ballpark vendors used to hawk their wares by shouting, “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard.” 

With all of these numbers, a scorecard won’t do. You need an abacus.

The Democrats aren’t much better with their uniform algebra. Four Democrats utilized the same uniform digits. There were two 3s. Two 11s. Two 15s. And two 25s. For instance, Reps. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., sported number three. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Frank Mrvan, D-Ind., requested number 11. 

The game is a charity event, raising more than $3.2 million and coaxing 32,000 fans to the ballpark. So who wears what number really shouldn’t matter much.

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Unless you’re broadcasting the game on national television.

That’s where I come in. 

I’ve had the privilege of announcing the game for Fox Sports for five years now, live on FS1. I handle the color commentary. My Fox News colleague and former ESPN hand Kevin Corke does play-by-play. Fox Sports sends the same production crew which handles playoff games and the World Series to cover this. Led by Fox producer extraordinaire Aaron Stojkov, the same group of folks just worked Fox’s national broadcast of the Cardinals/Cubs game a few weeks ago in St. Louis. They handled the Phillies/Brewers game in Milwaukee Saturday night.

Congress is my thing. But baseball even more so. 

I was at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati in 1985 the night Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb’s all-time hits record. I know that Atlanta Braves pitcher Tom House caught Hank Aaron’s 715th career home run in the bullpen, breaking Babe Ruth’s mark. I can talk about Ralph Branca on the mound for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Branca yielded “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World” to Bobby Thomson, propelling the New York Giants into the 1951 World Series. I’ll then regale you with the little known fact that Thomson is from Glasgow, Scotland. Not Staten Island. I can even give you a dissertation explaining the infield fly rule. 

But the annual ritual of decrypting the Congressional baseball game is the most challenging thing I do professionally each year. The exercise involving the national pastime is a fabulous yet tough assignment. 

I’ve often wondered if calling an actual Major League game would be easier than announcing the tilt between the Democrats and Republicans. For MLB, I follow the teams. I study box scores. I can tell who is on a winning streak. Who can’t hit a slider. 

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This is not to say that announcing a Big League game is easy. But there’s more information. It’s baseball as I know it. 

Pete Rose said that the easiest place to hit was the Big Leagues. The pitching was better. The umpiring was better. The lighting was better.

Rose’s point is that most MLB hurlers have command. But down in the minors, some of the pitchers make Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn from the movie Major League look like Greg Maddux. Umpires in The Show work a consistent strike zone. But in the Pioneer League, an actual pioneer may have a better concept of what’s a ball or strike. Down in the South Atlantic League, you might struggle to even see the ball because the stadium is practically illuminated by foot candles. But the lighting at Major League Stadiums is better than a Taylor Swift concert. 

So that’s the challenge. There’s a chasm between MLB and the Congressional baseball game. You have to figure out what to say about each player – who have limited stat lines. I know more about their voting records than batting averages. So, like any reporter, I dig around to prepare what to say during the game. 

It was just before 7a.m. ET a few weeks ago. My phone buzzed with a text from Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt. He was at the pre-dawn practice. Schmitt has the highest OPS (on base percentage, plus slugging percentage) in Congressional baseball history. He’s a mega St. Louis Cardinals fan. But despite his prowess at the plate, Schmitt made one of the most stellar plays in Congressional baseball history in the game Wednesday night.

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Rep. Johnny Oleszewski, D-Md., looped a long flyball down the left field line. Approaching foul ground and the warning track, Schmitt laid himself out, with a diving, circus catch in the heel of his glove. Schmitt popped back up, blood streaming from his face after crashing into the warning track.

“I’m not as sore as I thought I would be,” said Schmitt the next day, noting he scraped up his forearms. 

That play goes into the baseball lore for next year’s broadcast. 

Schmitt wasn’t the only Gold Glover this year. 

Reps. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., and Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., also made spectacular catches in short left field.

Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, is the GOP manager. But he toiled as an Atlanta Braves farmhand for three seasons. Williams hit an impressive .318 for Wytheville, VA in the Appalachian League in 1971. An injury curbed Williams to batting just .135 and .203 the next two seasons. The Braves released him and Wiliams became a scout. 

Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., manages the Democratic squad. She used to be one of a handful of women who played. After five seasons, Sanchez is still looking for her first win as the Democratic skipper. 

“We don’t get our hits together then and strand people on the bases,” said Sanchez. 

As a kid, Sanchez pulled for the now Los Angeles Angels. She was a big Nolan Ryan fan. But Sanchez dropped her allegiance to the Angels after Ryan signed with the Houston Astros. That was just as “Fernando-mania” seized the baseball world as phenom Fernando Valenzuela won the Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year honor in 1981. Sanchez has been a Los Angeles Dodgers fan ever since. 

I have two favorite tales about lawmakers and their connections to Major League Baseball.  

Rep. Ray Cannon, D-Wis., served in Congress in the 1930s. But before that, Cannon represented Shoeless Joe Jackson and other members of the Chicago White Sox, banished from baseball during the Black Sox scandal. Eight players are accused of trying to throw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. 

Then there was Rep. Jacob Ruppert, D-N.Y., who represented part of New York City in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Ruppert wanted to acquire a baseball club. But a deal to purchase the New York Giants fell through. He opted to buy the New York Yankees – who were consistently a second division team in those days. Ruppert then acquired Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees became one of the most-storied franchises in the history of sports. And Ruth became the first American superstar. 

Few in Congress know who Ruppert was in Congress. But when it comes to baseball, Ruppert is now enshrined in Cooperstown. 

In order to get everyone to the ballpark on time for the game, Steve Scalise scheduled final votes for the day around 4:30 pm et last Wednesday. He also told committees to suspend votes until after the ballgame. 

The House Appropriations Committee was prepping the annual Homeland Security bill that night. But Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., told Members he wanted everyone back to vote 30 minutes after the game. Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., had an amendment ready on collective bargaining for the TSA. Levin wondered if he’d return for the committee votes in his baseball uniform.

But no level of preparation fully arms you to call the game from the booth. I looked up at one point and found freshman Rep. Christian Menefee, D-Texas, pinch running at first base. But Menefee never appeared on any roster I was presented. I had no information on him. 

Menefee beat Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, in a primary for next year recently. He’s only been in Congress a few months after winning a special election. 

At first I couldn’t figure out who was out on the base paths. I scoured each each number on my roster. 

Nothing.

A multitude of numbers. But none for Menefee.

Prep all you want to announce the Congressional baseball game. But you’d still be outnumbered.