Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, on the week of the Congressional baseball game, one in which I will wear the uniform of the St. Louis Cardinals, I rise today to honor the life and career of Major League Baseball player Albert Fred ``Red'' Schoendienst, who passed away last week on Wednesday, June 6, at 95 years old. He was born 40 miles away from St. Louis, in my congressional district in Germantown, Illinois, on February 2, 1923. Red grew up as one of seven children. His dad was a coal miner. He lived, in his early days, without running water or electricity. He married Mary Eileen O'Reilly in 1947. They celebrated 52 years of marriage before she passed away in 1999. Together, they had four children, 10 grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren. At 16 years old, while working on a fence, under the Civilian Conservation Corps, he suffered an injury to his left eye. That injury made it hard for him to read a breaking ball from the right side, so he learned to be a switch-hitter. Red tried out for the Cardinals in 1942 and, at his induction ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame, he said he and his friends hitchhiked a ride to St. Louis on a milk truck and: ``I never thought that milk truck ride would eventually lead to Cooperstown and baseball's highest honor.'' He also spoke about his attitude toward playing the game. ``I would play any position my manager asked. Whatever it took to win I was willing to do.…”