The Democratic congressional baseball team will have a big hole to fill in their rotation.
Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) is headed for the Biden White House, where he'll serve as a senior adviser to President-elect Joe Biden and lead the Office of Public Engagement. But Biden's gain is a loss for congressional Democrats, who will not only miss him in the House (though his seat is in deep blue territory), but also as the their side's ace in the annual congressional baseball game.
Richmond, who pitched at Morehouse College, was perhaps the only true standout in the event every year. FiveThirtyEight previously went all in on advanced metrics and discovered he had a 2.5 WAR in just eight games, well ahead of the rest of the field. On the mound, he struck out a quarter of all batters he faced and pitched to a 2.20 ERA. He was just as good at the plate, slashing .652/.758/1.087 and hitting the game's lone homer in the past 10 years.
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Richmond on Tuesday downplayed his prodigious talent, joking at a press conference that he didn't need to be "Hank Aaron or Willie Mays" since he was just playing against congressional Republicans. He also cited incoming Texas Democrat, Colin Allred, a former NFL player who apparently also grew up playing baseball, as a potential replacement on the hill, and suggested he could still lend his skills as a coach. Tim O'Donnell
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