It wasn’t exactly Fenway Park – but the players didn’t seem to mind.
Dozens of Granite State lawmakers, sporting red and blue, flooded the Anheuser-Busch Athletic Complex in Merrimack on Saturday, taking part in what was billed as the first-ever legislative softball game in the New Hampshire Legislature.
Squaring off on a softball field, the legislators, many of whom had been practicing for weeks, lobbed pitches and lunged for bases, a notable break from commission hearings and legislative work sessions.
The game, organized in part by legislators and the DuPont Group, raised more than $10,000 for Liberty House, a Manchester-based group that runs a housing community for homeless veterans, according to organizers.
In the end, the score was less than bipartisan. With about two times the players, and twice as many practice sessions in the bank, Republican lawmakers took the trophy with a confident 15-4 finish.
But Democrats brushed it off.
“Our plays were better than anyone expected,” said Rep. Ben Baroody, who coached the blue-shirted team. “But it was all in the spirit of camaraderie.”
The idea came from Mike Moffett, R-Loudon, on an early-summer trip down to Washington, D.C. Since 1909, members in Congress from opposing parties have faced off in annual baseball games; Moffett, a first-term representative in the N.H. House, saw an opportunity for an event long overdue.
The plan caught on quickly, with early support from House Democratic Leader Steve Shurtleff, D-Penacook, and Rep. Jess Edwards, R-Auburn. A Vietnam veteran, Shurtleff suggested Liberty House; the House Veteran’s Caucus soon came on board.
Then came a national tragedy. On June 14, a gunman attacked a Republican practice session for the Congressional baseball team in Alexandria, Va., killing a security guard and wounding House Majority Whip Steve Scalise – just weeks after Moffett had pitched the idea in New Hampshire.
The event set off a chill in the Capitol. But for Moffett, the violence only validated his idea.
“I think that probably made us more determined to put something together that would be a positive thing,” he said.
On Saturday, the scene at the Merrimack brewery’s playing fields had all the feel of a stadium experience. Budweiser representatives stood by with cold drinks at hand; commemorative T-shirts tents and bipartisan campaign signs lined the entryway.
Signs for the events’ sponsors, including Preti Strategies and New England College, lined the fence in the background.
From the beginning, Republicans seized a lead, buoyed by a run by Rep. Howard Pearl in the first of seven innings. By the fourth, that lead had widened to a comfortable 11 runs; the score stayed stable for the rest of the game.
The face off comes at an acrimonious juncture for national politics, on the heels of presidential campaigns punctuated with insults and epithets. And New Hampshire hasn’t been immune to that. In May, dual hearings were held looking into the conduct lawmakers of both parties: Republican Rep. Robert Fisher, who was involved in a misogynistic online forum on Reddit and has since resigned, and Democratic Rep. Sherry Frost, criticized for using profanity on Twitter.
At times, the hearings themselves turned into shouting matches.
Edwards said those incidents underscored the need for better relations through events such as Saturday’s game.
“Things were getting kind of ugly, and we’d prefer a different term,” he said. “This is part of our attempt to set a more professional, more collegial tone.”
But he added that Granite State lawmakers, who in recent months have been huddled in committees tinkering with tabled legislation, already have a collaborative spirit.
His daughter, Rep. Elizabeth Edwards, agreed. A two-term Democrat who jumped into politics a term ahead of her dad, she stood at the opposite bench, cheering on different players. But she argued that rumors of bitter party-line divides are over-hyped.
“I tend to think that people always perceive that partisanship is getting worse,” she said. “Like no matter what year it is. And that people are getting nastier as time goes on. I’m very aware of the bias of people saying ‘Oh it used to be so much better back in the hazy, bygone days.’ ”
New Hampshire, she added, tends to buck those trends.
Organizers, for their part, praised the turnout. Jeff Nelson, Liberty House executive director, said the event would go a long way to raising the group’s profile boosting local donations.
Several years ago, the organization decided to refuse federal funds in order to continue requiring that its new members be sober; the new funds from Washington would have mandated that the organization take in those presently suffering from addiction, Nelson explained.
Since that decision, maintaining local connections has been even more important, he added.
By 2 p.m., the scoreboard was heavily tilted to the team in red. But spirits remained high. Rep. Joelle Martin, who scored one of the Democrats’ four runs, left elated, declaring the potential for a new tradition.
“One of my Ways and Means buddies who was on first base gave me a high five,” she said. “It was a great cause, a great day.”