WASHINGTON — They had cleared the field and cleaned out the bleachers at Nationals Park late Thursday night, and now they were turning out the lights. Representative Barry Loudermilk, a Republican from the 11th district of Georgia, lingered above the center field stands. He had just played a ballgame and lost by nine runs to the Democrats. He didn’t care.
“We love the game. We have a really good team,” he said. “And we’re just happy to be here.”
It was not a ballplayer cliché. Not this time, not for these people. The Republicans were missing their second baseman, Steve Scalise, the majority whip of the House of Representatives, who was wounded Wednesday morning when a gunman attacked their practice in Alexandria, Va.