[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 125 (Thursday, September 18, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1805-E1806]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     RICHIE ASHBURN: A BASEBALL SUPERSTAR WITH STRONG NEBRASKA ROOTS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 18, 1997

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, the Nation recently lost a true treasure 
with the passing of Richie Ashburn on September 9. Ashburn was a Hall 
of Fame baseball superstar and renowned broadcaster, but he never 
forgot his Nebraska roots. In addition to his annual visits back home, 
Ashburn made frequent references to his hometown of Tilden and the 
valuable lessons he learned while growing up in Nebraska.
  Richie Ashburn began his extraordinary athletic career in Nebraska 
where he starred in baseball, basketball, and track. Ashburn combined a 
natural athletic ability with determination and a strong work ethic. In 
the process, he set an enduring standard for athletes in northeast 
Nebraska and served as an inspiration for athletes across the State. 
Indeed this Member used a Richie Asburn Louisville Slugger when he 
played baseball for the Utica Legion team and for Utica and Seward in 
the Blue Valley League and the Cornhusker League.
  As a major league baseball player, Ashburn amassed an impressive 
record which eventually earned him enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. 
Outstanding from the beginning of his career, Ashburn received Rookie-
of-the-Year honors in 1948. Year after year, he excelled at the plate 
and in the field. He retired with an amazing .308 batting average and 
had more hits than any other player in the 1950's. Ashburn was a 
defensive standout in centerfield and led the league in putouts by an 
outfielder nine times, tying a major league record. Ashburn was also a 
threat on the basepaths where he had 234 career stolen bases.
  Following his outstanding 15 years in the majors, Ashburn considered 
running for Congress, but settled instead on a career in broadcasting. 
As a broadcaster for the Philadelphia Phillies, Ashburn displayed 
remarkable wit, knowledge, and love of the game. He was a familiar and 
comfortable voice for Phillies fans for 35 years.
  Ashburn's impressive statistics in the major leagues demonstrate his 
greatness as a player, but they obviously don't reveal the remarkable 
qualities he displayed as a person. Ashburn was a humble man with a 
marvelous sense of humor. He also maintained the values he learned from 
his family in Nebraska--honesty, loyalty, decency, and a caring 
attitude. He truly had a genuine concern for all people which earned 
him numerous friends and lasting affection. Richie Ashburn will 
certainly be missed.
  This Member would like to commend to his colleagues the following 
editorials from the Norfolk Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer. 
The editorials highlight Richie Ashburn's impressive accomplishments in 
Nebraska and Philadelphia.

             [From the Norfolk Daily News, Sept. 10, 1997]

                              Loss Mourned


  Accomplishments of Richie Ashburn will be remembered by many in area

       Just short of a half-century ago, Richie Ashburn was named 
     ``rookie of the year'' by the Sporting News. He had compiled 
     a .333 batting average in his first major league year; had 
     stolen 32 bases to lead in that category even though he 
     missed a month of the season. He was chosen as a starter in 
     center field for the National League allstar team in that 
     year, 1948.
       His reaction to the award was this: ``I only hope I will 
     merit the honor by better playing next year.'' His career 
     with the Philadelphia Phillies and finally with the Chicago 
     Cubs and New York Mets, was marked by that determination and 
     for continued high-level performance. A lifetime record of 
     achievement in baseball led to belated recognition as a Hall 
     of Fame member in 1995.
       Northeast Nebraskans followed this Tilden native's career 
     closely, from his days with the Antelopes in the early 1940s, 
     a Legion baseball team sponsored by the post in Neligh, to 
     his stellar performance as a basketball player in the off-
     season for Norfolk Junior College.
       He had the strong support of parents, Mr. and Mrs. Neil 
     Ashburn, who made a home for Richie and four of his young 
     teammates in their first years in Philadelphia. His mother 
     still lives in Tilden.
       His talent was not limited to playing baseball, but also 
     included column-writing for a Philadelphia newspaper and a 
     long career as an announcer for the Phillies. Now his career 
     is closed with his sudden, unexpected death Sept. 9 at the 
     age of 70.
       He has an extended family to mourn his loss. It consists of 
     supportive relatives, of course, whom he came back to 
     Nebraska to see regularly. But it also numbers thousands of 
     aging baseball fans who still remember vividly his exploits 
     on the field and are proud of his performance off of it.

            [From the Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 10, 1997]

                              The Whiz Kid


      On the field and in the broadcast booth, Richie Ashburn was 
                        Philadelphia to the core

       Try to name a Philadelphian more beloved than D. Richard 
     Ashburn.

[[Page E1806]]

       Can't be done, can it?
       Over half a century, Mr. Ashburn, the Phillies' Hall of 
     Fame outfielder and longtime broadcaster who died suddenly 
     yesterday, became woven deep into the fabric of a tough but 
     loyal town. The threads running through his career were 
     bedrock decency, consistency, dry wit and, of course, dashing 
     athletic skill.
       When Mr. Ashburn had a heart attack in a New York hotel 
     after broadcasting a ball game between two teams for which he 
     played, the Phils and Mets, Philadelphians lost someone who 
     helped define their sense of their town.
       He was, in the city's high accolade, a ``regular guy,'' a 
     man who knew how to win and how to struggle, how to laugh and 
     how to grieve, whom the rest of the nation never quite 
     appreciated the way it should.
       As a player, the Nebraskan everyone called Whitey was one 
     of his generation's best, but often overlooked on the 
     national stage. He was an artist of the single in a game 
     where home-run hitters hog the spotlight. A Philadelphian in 
     an era when New York's Golden Age of Sport featured three 
     legends playing his position: Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and 
     Duke Snider.
       He didn't fret about that. He just kept doing with 
     meticulous class all the little things--fielding his 
     position, bunting runners along--that make winning possible.
       Fitting it was that he saved the National League pennant 
     for the fabled 1950 Whiz Kids with a defensive play in the 
     season's last game.
       Fitting it was also that baseball finally came to its 
     senses and put him into its Hall of Fame in 1995--though 
     sadly too late for him to savor the moment with his dead 
     father, twin sister and daughter. At his induction, he shared 
     the podium graciously with a more talented but less lovable 
     Phillie, Mike Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt himself, scanning the sea 
     of red caps and the record 200 chartered buses invading 
     Cooperstown that day, observed that 'twas Whitey who'd lured 
     most of them.
       In the broadcast booth, as on the field, Mr. Ashburn's work 
     featured a Philadelphia-friendly mix: loyalty, warmth, 
     honesty and understated humor that refused to take himself or 
     anyone else too seriously.
       He was never the smoothest caller of a game, but he knew 
     how to share a microphone, how to sum up excellence or 
     disaster in one sage phrase, and how to put friendliness into 
     the ``Welcome to Minnie from Royersford, celebrating her 90th 
     today at the Vet'' messages it was his daily lot to read.
       A great ballplayer speaks to that piece inside people that 
     yearns for heroes. A baseball broadcaster, more than any 
     other sports announcer, becomes a piece of a city's daily 
     conversation, a reliable bard whose word pictures fuel 
     backyard debates and spice long commutes.
       Philadelphia was graced to have Richie Ashburn in those two 
     roles over five decades.
       Whitey, you'll be missed.

       

                          ____________________