Republican, Democrat baseball managers confirm Thursday game time
Wednesday, June 14th 2017
http://wjla.com/news/nation-world/democrat-republican-baseball-managers-speak
The Republican and Democratic baseball team managers confirmed that the game will go on as scheduled for Thursday night at Nationals stadium in Washington, D.C., in spite of the shooting at the Republican practice early on Wednesday morning.
In a show of bipartisan unity, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) announced that there will be no break in the 100-year-old tradition of the congressional baseball game. In addition, Doyle and his Democratic teammates extended a dinner invite to the entire Republican team at the Democratic headquarters near Capitol Hill.
“It shouldn’t take an incident like this to bring us together,” Doyle said, saying that the doors of the Democratic Club will be open tonight. “We’re going to have both teams together and just have the time to be with each other and reflect upon this day and to share some food and drink and get to know each other a little bit better.”
The congressional baseball game starts at 7 P.M. tomorrow and is expected to raise $500,000 for local charities, Barton said, but because of the incident they may exceed expectations.
The proceeds of the event go to the Washington Literacy Center, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington and the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation. The Capitol Police Memorial Fund was added to the list of beneficiaries on Wednesday.
Barton emphasized the importance of civility following the incident, and welcomed the Democrats’ dinner invite as a “historic first-step in bipartisanship.”
So far only 25,000 seats in Nationals Stadium have been reserved for the Thursday night game. Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), whose staffer was shot and injured in the shooting, wanted to remind the public that the stadium can hold 50,000 people.
“I’m hoping, since its a charity [event] we’ll have more people than we would have had,” Williams said at a press conference.
The Republicans and Democrats are currently tied. Each team has 39 wins, 39 losses and one tie.
Five people were injured on Wednesday morning when a gunman opened fire on the Republican team’s practice field in Alexandria, Va. More than 60 shots were fired. Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot and is reported to be in critical condition.
