Scalise back on field after nearly dying
Congressional charity game won by Dems 21-5
WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats put aside the sectarian hostilities that have increasingly defined this town and came together on the baseball diamond Thursday, a year after bullets from a would-be mass assassin shook Congress to its core.
Democrats prevailed 21-5 in the 57th Congressional Baseball Game for Charity at Nationals Park. But the night belonged to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and all who hailed his return after he was shot during a team practice last spring in suburban Virginia.
The Louisiana Republican suffered life-threatening injuries and has endured lengthy hospitalizations, multiple surgeries and painful rehabilitation. Months removed from struggling to walk, Scalise was honored before the game and started at second base for Republicans, fielding a ground ball and completing the putout to first on the game’s first play.
“It’s been a long road to this day,” Scalise wrote on Twitter earlier in a day filled with media interviews, accolades and a Capitol Hill blood drive to commemorate the donations he received a year ago.
Scalise wore a Capitol Police cap to honor officers who worked the shooting last year, injuring gunman James Hodgkinson, who later died. Hodgkinson’s social media posts before the shooting suggest he targeted the Republican baseball team because of his political views.
Giving no mention to Hodgkinson, Scalise pronounced himself “grateful for the support and prayers” Thursday and added, “Let’s play some baseball.”
The House whip’s comeback was enough to leave Francis Kelly bursting with pride in the centerfield seats.
“It’s just being an American — terror should not scare us,” the 41-yearold graphic designer said.
Still, the outpouring for Scalise obscured the daily realities of a capital city still bitterly divided on nearly every major policy debate, including how to regulate the weapons like those wielded on Scalise and his fellow Republicans a year ago in Alexandria, Virginia.
Scalise and other Republican team members said leading up to the game that he’s fine with where Congress is on gun laws, including after mass school shootings that have frequented headlines since last year’s near disaster.