There are Hall of Famers like Hank Aaron, who piled up massive numbers over long careers. And there are Hall of Famers like Bill Mazeroski, who had nice careers but earned their enshrinement based on singular moments. This year’s CQ Roll Call Congressional Baseball Hall of Fame inductee falls into the latter category.
In 1979, Rep. Ron Paul crushed a slow curveball from then-Rep. Ron Mottl that cleared the left-field wall just to the right of the 310-foot mark in Alexandria’s Four Mile Run Park. The Texas Republican is believed to be the first person to hit one out of the park during a Congressional Baseball Game.
It even had a bit of “The Natural” in it. Roll Call reported that when Paul, whose only pre-Congressional baseball experience derived from the sandlots of his youth, came to bat in the sixth inning, his knees were “swabbed in yards of bandages, a precaution after operations over the years.”
Paul said he didn’t realize that was the first over-the-wall home run at the time. “I think they honored me that night with an award for doing it. It was a lot of fun, that’s all. There was no long-lasting significance.”
There are many who would disagree. His legendary power has led to YouTube highlight clips and even a Ripley’s Believe It or Not cartoon. Over the years, however, memories have turned to myth. While Paul is the first to hit an out-of-the-park home run, it has been 15 years since he was the only one to do so. In 1997, another Republican, Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois, hit one off the foul pole at Prince George’s Stadium in Bowie, Md. Others, including former Sen. Birch Bayh
(D-Ind.) and ex-Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), have hit inside-the-park homers.
And if you ask Paul about the home run, he’ll tell you it’s not his most memorable hit.
“I remember the one I missed,” Paul said, referring to the 1976 game at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium — a major league park. “I hit the top of the wall and got a double.”
According to Roll Call’s coverage of that game, Paul led off with that double, prompting a number of “wows” from Baltimore Orioles, who were watching from the dugout. Both of those hits came off Mottl, and both came on the same pitch. “It went right over the left-field fence,” the Ohio Democrat said. “I never gave him another slow curveball. That was my best pitch.”
Instead, Mottl opted to throw Paul the “blue darter.” “He had a little more trouble with the straight pitch,” he said.
But Mottl, like Paul’s fans, never seemed to forget those big hits because in 1980 he intentionally walked Paul in the first inning to load the bases. Paul would score in that inning and later hit an infield single.
“I feared him when he came up,” Mottl said.
Paul’s high school didn’t have a baseball team when he arrived, so he played football and ran track (“my best sport”). But he tore cartilage in his knee playing football and never fully recovered. “Although I ran in college, I never got my speed back. I peaked as a junior in high school,” he said.
That injury, combined with an electoral loss, limited his Congressional baseball career to seven games. Paul ran for the Senate in 1984 but lost the Republican primary to Phil Gramm. By the time he returned to the House in 1997, it was too late.
“I did [think about playing], but at that point I had been out for 12 years. There were people a little bit younger, and it was the worst time for my knees,” he said. “There was not much ability to run at all. I was not competitive by then.”
He retired from Congressional baseball with a .294 batting average, six runs scored and six runs batted in during seven games.
These days Paul is more widely known for his libertarian take on government. But even back in 1984, as he was preparing to leave the House, Paul had thoughts on how lawmakers could better spend their time.
“I do believe that if the Democrats and the Republicans played more baseball and legislated a lot less, the country would be much better off,” he said on the chamber floor on Sept. 19, 1984. “I am convinced the annual baseball game played by the Republicans and the Democrats must be considered one of the most productive events in which the Members of Congress participate.”
