The Verbal Slugfest

At last year’s Congressional Women’s Softball Game, the Members topped the press on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the seventh inning by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

In sports, trash talking can be a potent weapon in puffing up the collective team ego while cutting that of the opposition.

For the Congressional Women’s Softball Game, it’s a means of motivation and a gentle way to rib the other side.

On June 20, women of the press and female Members of Congress face off for the game’s fourth annual installment. (This will be the third game between the press and the Members.) Last year, the Members topped the press, 5-4, on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the seventh inning by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).

Though the intent of the game serves a much greater purpose — raising money for the Young Survival Coalition, an organization that aids young women confronting breast cancer — it integrates playful, frequent teasing between the two teams leading up to game day.

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Bada Bings Join Twitter Fray

Want to follow a winner? Now you can.

The first-place Bada Bings, a team based in the Congressional Softball League, is now on Twitter, joining the social networking site last week.

The Bings’ Twitter tenure kicked off  last Friday, and while the team might joke around on social media, it is all business on the field.

The team with the Sopranos-themed team name is an impressive 5-0 this season and sits alone atop the CSL standings.

If people follow winners, we’re hoping the Bings’ decision to join Twitter has a chain reaction, leading to more softball teams establishing their own feeds. So far this season, we’ve been able to track down 14 teams to follow on Twitter. And some of the “active” accounts are only sparingly updated.

Post-Holiday Return

Along with the rest of us, the overwhelming majority of softball junkies in Washington, D.C., took a pause Monday to honor the fallen on Memorial Day.

Under the “games” section of its website, the House Softball League indicates that no matchups were played Monday.

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Ed Perlmutter Leaves Coaching Mark on Women’s Softball Game

While the female players will be the focus of the fourth annual Congressional Women’s Softball Game on June 20, we shouldn’t forget the contribution their male colleagues make as coaches.

Both the Member team and the press team have male coaches. The press team uses the services of New York Times Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Carl Hulse and Associated Press Special Correspondent David Espo.

Reps. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) and Kevin Brady (R-Texas) pitch in on game day for the Congressional women. But one source close to the team tells Roll Call that Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) has been particularly active in helping to prepare the team for this year’s game.

Perlmutter has met with the ladies several times this year, hopping on his bike for the early morning practices at a park on the Southeast side of town.

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Rounding the Bases

As Memorial Day weekend approaches, we wanted to give readers a quick roundup of what we learned this week in our ventures out on the diamond.

* Courting Disaster may be the only the team that plays with a dry sideline. Indeed, not a single red cup containing that special liquid could be found. Instead, the team relied upon that good old-fashioned beverage known as H2O.

* The Colorado Cutthroats like to take to Twitter, but only when it comes to thrashing the opposition. Wonder if the team will be as bold after a loss?

* Congressional Softball Commissioner Gary Caruso has had number of jobs in Washington, D.C. But the one thing that has remained constant during his stay in the nation’s Capitol: tending to his softball duties.

* For some teams, the rain is no obstacle when it comes to getting their softball on. When Courting Disaster squared off against the Destroyers earlier this week, the game was interrupted by some heavy rain during the 4th and 5th innings. But rather than throwing in the towel, both teams decided to muddy their cleats and pull through, and the rain eventually subsided.

Colorado Cutthroats Show No Mercy

The Colorado Cutthroats lived up to their pre-game smack talk Thursday night, taking it to the EditOrioles, CQ Roll Call’s softball team, 23-7.

We had noted earlier this week that the Cuttthroats had been in absentia from the land of Twitter, only to return with some hard-hitting dialogue about what they had in store for their opponents. Full story

Flashback: Members Celebrate Last Year’s Victory on House Floor

Rep. Linda Sánchez scores the winning run off an RBI hit by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz during last year's Congressional Women's Softball game. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

On June 20, the women of the Congress and the women of the press will square off for the fourth annual Congressional Women’s Softball Game. The game’s primary purpose is to raise money for the Young Survival Coalition, an organization that aids young women with breast cancer.

A key element of the game is the back-and-forth between Members and their press counterparts. To give you a preview of what you can expect from this year’s game, we searched through the video archives to track down the Members’ “victory floor statement” from last July.

The video makes it clear that the Members reveled in using the formal setting of the House to celebrate last year’s 5-4 victory. Full story

Colorado Cutthroats Re-Enter Twitterverse With Trash Talk

Last week, we tweeted at the Colorado Cutthroats, noting that the House Softball League team had not shown its Twitter feed some love in quite some time.

Through the help of 21st-century technology (cough, BlackBerry), we received notice last evening that the team had decided to follow us. Much obliged.

The team’s Twitter feed had been populated by nothing but crickets since July 21 of last year.

But 18 hours ago, the Colorado Cutthroats made a triumphant return with some good old-fashioned trash talk. And the recipient of the team’s online fire? None other than CQ Roll Call’s in-house softball team, the EditOrioles.

“Hoping the weather holds this week for our annual showdown with the EditOrioles so we can show them what’s what,” the tweet read.

We’re not taking sides in this fight, but they always say not to pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel. Or, in this case, by the pixel.

Supreme Court Aide Glides on the Field and in the Air

(Aaron Guerrero/CQ Roll Call)

Derek Kettner can fly around the base pads and the clouds.

On Tuesday night, he manned the mound for Courting Disaster as the team of Supreme Court employees faced off against fellow House Softball League team the Destroyers. The final score resembled a failed, late ’90s duel between Todd Van Poppel and Salomon Torres, 21-14, with the Destroyers prevailing.

Kettner, who fared better at the plate than he did at the mound, will likely shake off the loss with an easygoing flight at the Montgomery County Airport.

Away from his job as a Marshal’s aide to the Supreme Court justices, the Buffalo native flies a Piper Dakota plane. A licensed pilot since 2010, Kettner tries to fly once a week, an aerial escape from the pressures of life in the Beltway.

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Sprucing Up Your Softball Shirt

On game day, it’s not uncommon to hear some players express the need for new team shirts.

Usually, the rank and file go straight to the top, talking to their captains about how the current team shirt isn’t cutting it. Indeed, the lack of clothing unanimity among some teams leaves them looking like a band of ragtags rather than a cohesive unit.

With the season still young, there’s time to make your team look good, whether it’s winning or losing.

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Through Softball, Whiskey Caucus Honors Former Teammate

(Aaron Guerrero/CQ Roll Call)

On an overcast Monday night, the Whiskey Caucus, a House Softball League team, fell 15-13 to the Three Amigos, a team primarily made up of staffers from the Texas delegation.

But for the Whiskey Caucus, softball isn’t just a game of wins and losses. It’s a way to preserve the memory of a departed teammate.

As Ben Brockschmidt, a staffer in the office of Rep. Timothy Johnson (R-Ill.), told Roll Call that Eric Fatla was a driving force in forming the Whiskey Caucus softball team more than two years ago.

In the early part of 2010, Fatla, a Hill staffer turned George Washington University law student, along with Brockschmidt and others made the collective decision to splinter away from Licensed to IL, another House Softball League team. The decision  took the Whisky Caucus from pure social club to scrappy softball team.

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May Rain Could Dim Softball Hopes This Week

When it comes to summing up the prospect of softball surviving this week’s onslaught of expected rain, we turn to the wise philosopher Astro: “Ruh-roh!”

The Weather Channel’s website shows a Monday-Thursday forecast that is pessimistic for those looking to grab their gloves and bats and head out to the Mall  for an evening of fun.

According to the site, tonight will see a scattering of thunderstorms.

Tuesday’s forecast features 79-degree heat but will likely have PM thunderstorms.

It gets no better Wednesday, when the heat rises up to 82 degrees but so, too, does the chance of rain, at 60 percent.

And if teams are hoping Thursday will become their refuge, they may want to think again. It will be a toasty 78 degrees with the looming possibility of scattered thunderstorms.

See the weekly forecast here.

Whiskey Caucus Stresses Bipartisanship on and off the Field

The Whiskey Caucus is solving Washington’s partisan woes one drink and softball game at a time.

A member of the House Softball League, the Whiskey Caucus was started in 2008 by Capitol Hill staffers as a means of social gathering, and the team began playing softball in 2010. At the time of its creation, the club had six members. Today it has more than 100.

For some off-the-field mingling, the club meets every Friday (sans holidays) for a drink, though the location is not disclosed on its website. Full story

The Roots of RAND Slam!

If you’re like us, you might have been left tossing and turning last night over the unsolved mystery surrounding the origins of RAND Slam!, the Senate Softball League team.

Yesterday, we scratched the office of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) off the list of possibilities after his communications director tweeted out her surprise at the existence of a team incorporating her boss’s first name into their own.

After some deep digging, the mystery has been solved.

This afternoon, a representative from the RAND Corp.’s Washington, D.C., office confirmed via email that the wonkish nonprofit organization is indeed the team’s sponsor.

According to the email, the team is “excited” to be back on the field after a three-year hiatus.

RAND Slam! Offers Mystery

RAND Slam!, a team from the Senate Softball League, bares the name of Sen. Rand Paul. And the team plays in the league named after the chamber in which the Kentucky Republican serves.

But it appears that the roster’s roots might not be from the tea party darling’s office.

Earlier this week, our “Team Name of the Day” tweet commended the team for its clever fusion of the Senator’s first name and the four-run jack.

Earlier today, Moira Bagley, the Senator’s communications director, tweeted back with a hint of surprise that someone was playing under the banner of her boss’ first name.

“But we don’t have a team! Wonder who it could be,” she said.

We tweeted Bagley back, expressing our surprise that the team was not associated with Paul’s office.

Now, like Bagley, we’re beginning to wonder what collection of individuals plays for the team. And more importantly, who thought of that cool name?