[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 106 (Wednesday, July 15, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7551-S7552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     COMMENDING TOM AND MAGGIE RYAN

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I would like to salute Tom Ryan and his 
daughter, Maggie, of Shelburne, VT, for their goodwill gesture at a 
recent Boston Red Sox game.
  Last week, Tom and Maggie were at Fenway Park cheering on the Red 
Sox, and they ended up with the baseball David Ortiz--better known in 
Red Sox Nation as Big Papi--hit over the Green Monster for the 300th 
home run of his career.
  I had the good fortune to meet Big Papi last year at the White House 
celebration honoring the 2007 Red Sox World Series championship, and I 
was delighted to learn Tom and Maggie had the opportunity to meet Big 
Papi too and present him with the historic ball.
  In honor of the Ryans, and this important moment in Red Sox history, 
I ask unanimous consent that a copy of the Burlington Free Press's 
story, Vermont Man, Daughter Make Big Papi's Day, by Sam Hemingway be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record as follows:

            [From the Burlington Free Press, July 12, 2009]

               Vermont Man, Daughter Make Big Papi's Day

                           (By Sam Hemingway)

       Shelburne.--Going to Fenway Park is akin to going to church 
     for die-hard Boston Red Sox fan Tom Ryan.
       So imagine what it was like for the 46 year-old Shelburne 
     resident to meet David ``Big Papi'' Ortiz, Boston's beloved 
     slugger--inside the team clubhouse and within sight of the 
     locker room.
       Ryan and his daughter, Maggie, had that Red Sox dream-come-
     true moment Thursday night when Ryan ended up in possession 
     of the baseball that Ortiz ripped for his 300th homer in the 
     first inning of what ended in an 8-6 loss to the Kansas City 
     Royals.
       ``It didn't get out by much,'' Ryan said, recalling the 
     moment the ball zoomed off Ortiz's bat and hit the top ledge 
     of the Green Monster wall in left field.
       The ball ricocheted off the wall and fell to the ground 
     below Section 33, Box 165, Row LL, a spot that overlooks left 
     field half way between third base and the Green Monster.
       That's where Ryan and Maggie were, in Seats 5 and 6, when 
     Royals' leftfielder Jose Guillen picked up the ball and, 
     acknowledging the appeals in the seats above, tossed the ball 
     into the stands--and into Ryan's hands.
       ``We were just excited because it was a Big Papi home 
     run,'' Ryan said. ``People around us were all charged up, 
     too.''
       Moments later, a security guard approached Ryan and asked 
     him to come with him. Ryan thought perhaps he had done 
     something wrong and that maybe he and Maggie were going to 
     get kicked out of Fenway Park.
       Instead, the guard told him the homer was Ortiz's 300th and 
     that Big Papi had asked for someone to find out if he could 
     get the ball back. Ryan said he was glad to comply with 
     Ortiz's request.
       ``To me, it was the right thing to do,'' he said.
       So he, Maggie and the security guard walked over to the 
     team's clubhouse.
       Along the way, a representative of Major League Baseball 
     approached them and questioned Ryan about how he got the 
     ball, just to make sure it really was the one that Ortiz had 
     just hit. Only 19 active baseball players have hit 300 or 
     more homers.
       When the group entered the clubhouse to make the ball 
     exchange, a door across the room opened and in walked Ortiz, 
     grinning from ear to ear.
       He's a mountain of a man,'' Ryan said. ``Big smile, big 
     hands, big heart. He was genuinely very grateful, kind of 
     giddy, kind of excited.''
       Ryan said he asked Ortiz what he was going to do with the 
     ball and said Ortiz told him and Maggie that he had talked to 
     his dad that morning and was going to give the ball to his 
     father while visiting him during the upcoming All Star break.
       In return for the ball, Ortiz gave Ryan and Maggie one of 
     his bats and signed it. Maggie,

[[Page S7552]]

     17 and an incoming Champlain Valley Union High School senior, 
     was with her dad in Boston to check out colleges, and 
     happened to be wearing an Ortiz Red Sox T-shirt.
       So Ortiz signed that, too.
       ``It was just luck,'' Maggie said of the shirt she chose to 
     wear that day. ``I also have a (Jason) Varitek and a (Jacoby) 
     Ellsbury shirt.'' Varitek is the Red Sox catcher, Ellsbury 
     the team's center fielder.
       Dad and daughter eventually returned to their seats and 
     passed the Ortiz bat around among their seatmates.
       Later in the game, the Major League Baseball person again 
     asked to speak to them, questioning them some more in order 
     to make sure the ball Ryan gave Ortiz wasn't one slugged into 
     the stands during batting practice.
       The Ortiz bat now sits on a shelf in the Ryan living room. 
     Maggie has her signed Ortiz T-shirt, but it's unlikely she'll 
     be wearing--or washing--it much more in the future.
       Ryan said he asked the Red Sox for one last favor on 
     Thursday night.
       Would it be possible, he queried, for him to bring his wife 
     Lucia, and the family's other two children all of them 
     passionate Sox fans--back to Fenway Park sometime this summer 
     and visit with Ortiz again?
       ``They told me they did not think it would be a problem.''

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