[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 20336]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO HARVEY HADDIX

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL G. OXLEY

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 14, 2005

  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, there have been many memorable pitching 
performances in the history of major league baseball. But no pitcher 
was ever better for as long a time in a single game than Harvey Haddix 
the night he pitched 12 perfect innings. His legacy will be celebrated 
in his native Champaign County on September 18 with the dedication of 
an Ohio Historical Marker in Westville, where he played his first 
organized ball. Harvey Haddix was a consummate baseball professional. 
He was a three-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner who played for five 
teams in a career that lasted from 1952-1965. He was later a successful 
pitching coach. Harvey will forever be known in baseball lore for the 
game he pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Milwaukee Braves 
on May 26, 1959. Batter by batter, he shut down a powerful Braves team 
that boasted hitters like Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Joe Adcock. 27 
batters came up, 27 made out--a virtuoso accomplishment that would have 
set off a great celebration in any other game. But the Pirates couldn't 
score either, so Harvey was forced to extend his masterpiece into the 
tenth, eleventh, and twelfth innings. It finally came to an end in the 
thirteenth inning when the Braves scored a single run to win the game, 
1-0. The story in the sports pages the next day was that a pitcher had 
``lost'' a perfect game. But the real story of Harvey Haddix's amazing 
game has to do with the lesson that he taught all of us about the joy 
of competition. When you give your personal best, long past the point 
when it may seem you've given all you can, you'll always be respected 
as a winner. Indeed, just one season later, this ``hard luck'' pitcher 
won two games, including Game 7, in the 1960 World Series as his 
Pirates improbably defeated the favored New York Yankees. That was 
probably just baseball's way of evening things out. Harvey Haddix was 
born in Medway and resided in Springfield at the time of his death in 
1994. As a fellow Ohioan and manager of the Republican Congressional 
Baseball team, I am especially proud of the honor that Harvey Haddix 
brought to baseball and our part of the state. The dedication of a 
historical marker on what would have been his 80th birthday is a 
fitting tribute to a ballplayer whose name will always be part of the 
storied history of our national pastime.

                          ____________________