Lawmakers in Washington ditched their suits for baseball uniforms Wednesday evening for the annual Congressional Baseball Game two miles away from Capitol Hill. The Republicans played against Democrats at Nationals Park, the home of MLB’s Washington Nationals.
Now on a four-year streak, the GOP claimed victory, 31-11, and Utah’s Rep. Blake Moore gave it his all, despite battling a stomach flu.
The game was briefly interrupted by eight climate protesters. They were tackled and arrested, said the U.S. Capitol Police. Pro-Palestine protests took place outside the stadium.
A majority of the players were made up of House members and some senators. Democrats led 5-4 in the second inning, but Republicans quickly gained momentum and pulled away. The game was about raising money for a good cause, a pleasant change from the divisive environment on the Hill.
The game raised $2 million for Washington Literacy Center, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington and Washington Nationals Philanthropies. Proceeds also go to the U.S. Capitol Police in honor of the officers.
“This is a great moment where we bring together the staffs from both sides of the aisle, members from both sides of the aisle,” said Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas. “We’ve been talking to each other about it on the House floor. It gives us a little bit of a reprieve before we go back to do the people’s work tomorrow.”
Before the game, Utah Rep. Blake Moore posted on Instagram, “Big game tonight! No better way to relive the glory days than the Congressional Baseball Game. A tradition over 100 years and lots of good done for charity!”
The first game was organized in 1909. According to archives, the Boston Daily Globe reported, “The game was brewing for weeks and the Members of the House were keyed up a high pitch of enthusiasm. Deep, dark rumors were in circulation that ‘ringers’ would be introduced, but when they lined up at 4 o’clock the nine republicans were stalwart, grand old party men, while the democrats were of the pure Jeffersonian strain.”
In another post, Moore, the vice chairman of the Republican Conference, said he received a request to honor the late Steve Klauke, the longtime Salt Lake Bees announcer who died earlier this week. The congressman wore a Bees hat with a yellow ribbon that carried Klauke’s initials. “It’s my honor!” he said in the X post.
Moore racked up five RBIs at the plate as a batter and was especially effective in center field. “There is something even more sinister going on this year that I think will resonate with Utahns,” he said on “Inside Sources with Boyd Matheson” before the game. “It was June 11th, 1997. I was at the ‘flu game,’ the Michael Jordan, Game 5, where allegedly the pizza joint in Park City had poisoned him, had given him food poisoning.”
“Well, I woke up this morning at about 4 a.m., horribly sick. I DoorDashed food last night and I think the Democrats repeated what the pizza joint in Park City did,” Moore said before making the connection that Jordan’s alleged poison was the same date as his: June 11. “This is all happening again. Tonight is my Jordan Game 5 flu game and I’m going to deliver just like Jordan.”
He recalled the worried look the GOP coach, Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, had when he saw Moore earlier in the day, “He was like, ‘Are you going to be ready? Do I have to change the lineup?’”
During the first inning, he caught a ball, hit by Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., and swiftly tossed it to Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla. At this point, Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram giving the play-by-play with John Walton, radio voice of the Washington Capitals, detailed Moore’s time as a quarterback at Ogden High School. In 1997, he won the Wendy’s High School Heisman, a prestigious athletic award at the high school level.
Pergram and Walton also discussed Moore’s mode of transportation when he is in Washington, D.C. “He rides his moped, I’ve seen him pull up outside the House, go in and go get back on his scooter and zip away,” said Walton.
“It’s totally uncool,” said Pergram. “But he can pull it off.”
Although Moore didn’t score a home run this time around, he did hit one “inside-the-park home run in 2021.” Punchbowl News highlighted Texas GOP Rep. August Pfuger’s three-run home run this year.
One X user said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., is Congress’ Aaron Judge from the New York Yankees. Another called Moore “an underrated player,” to which Moore replied, “That’s what I’m saying.”
Democrats accepted defeat, but only for now. “To my fellow teammates: we’ll get ‘em next year!” said Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., on X.