Game on: Tragedy won’t stop congressional baseball game

ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The game will go on.

The annual Congressional Baseball Game, which dates to 1909 and is a summertime tradition on Capitol Hill, will be played on Thursday despite Wednesday’s shooting at the GOP squad’s practice in Alexandria, Virginia.

It’s an annual event in which aging former Little Leaguers don their spikes and dust off their gloves in a game played for bragging rights and to benefit several charities.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., assured lawmakers assembled at a members’ briefing that the game will go on, prompting a standing ovation.

Once a relatively cozy affair, played at a minor league ballpark in Maryland, the game has gone big time in recent years and has been played at Nationals Park, just a few blocks from the Capitol.

The Latest: Scalise in critical condition after surgery

Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., speaks with the media on
Capitol Hill, Wednesday, May 17, 2017 in Washington. (AP Photo/
Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Washington hospital says the congressman shot during a baseball practice is in critical condition following surgery.

MedStar Washington said in a tweet Wednesday afternoon that Rep. Steve Scalise “was critically injured and remains in critical condition.” It provided no further details about him.

Scalise was among several people wounded when a rifle-wielding attacker fired on Republican lawmakers on a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. The attacker was shot and later died.

The hospital said another victim of the shooting is in good condition. It did not identify the victim.

CONGRESSMAN SHOT-SHOOTER

Gunman who shot top GOP congressman had history of arrests

CHICAGO (AP) — The Illinois man who shot a Republican congressman and several other people Wednesday while they practiced baseball outside the nation’s capital had a number of run-ins with police in recent years, including arrests for battery, resisting arrest and drunken driving.

This 2006 photo provided by the St. Clair County, Ill., Sheriff’s
Department shows James T. Hodgkinson. Officials said Hodgkinson
has been identified as the man who opened fire on Republican
lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice Wednesday June
14, 2017 in Alexandria, Va. (St. Clair County Illinois Sheriff’s
Department via AP)

James T. Hodgkinson, who was 66, was fatally shot by police. Court records show that his legal trouble started in the 1990s. His most serious problems apparently came in 2006, when he was arrested on the battery charge. Records indicate he has not been involved in any legal cases since 2011.

Hodgkinson’s Facebook page indicates that, until recently, he ran a home-inspection business out of his home in Belleville, in the southwestern corner of the state, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.