[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 10890-10891]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      CONGRATULATIONS SKIP MARANEY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOE WILSON

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 7, 2015

  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, during the 54th Annual 
Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game for Charity on June 11th, there 
was recognition of Skip Maraney as this year's Hall of Fame Inductee.
  Skip was properly recognized as a living legend institution of 
Capitol Hill. The following tribute was published in the game program.

     Roll Call's The Man Who Pioneered Roll Call's Sports Coverage

                           (By David Meyers)

       If Roll Call founder Sid Yudain was the Abner Doubleday of 
     congressional baseball, Skip Maraney was his Shirley Povich.
       Maraney spent most of the 1960's writing about 
     congressional sports--baseball, obviously, but also 
     basketball, softball, bowling, and bridge--for Roll Call. In 
     fact, he was Roll Call's first, and seemingly only, sports 
     columnist. For his dedication to the paper, the community and 
     the game, Maraney is the 2015 inductee into the Roll Call 
     Congressional Baseball Hall of Fame.

[[Page 10891]]

       Maraney was working for the Clerk of the House in 1963, 
     when he suggested to Yudain that someone should write about 
     all the sports teams featuring congressional staff (baseball 
     was just getting going then). ``He said, `Ok, write it,''' 
     Maraney recalls about the birth of Skip-along, which 
     eventually expanded into an ``around the Hill'' beat and laid 
     the groundwork for Roll Call's current coverage of life in 
     and around the Capitol.
       From his perch, Maraney watched the game rise from the 
     ashes after Speaker Sam Rayburn, D-Texas, shut it down in 
     1958. In 1961, members of Congress took part in a home-run 
     contest and the next year the event became an actual game, 
     played prior to a Washington Senators home contest.
       ``Sid had the idea of turning it into a party. The game had 
     hot dogs, cheerleaders,'' Maraney says. ``Buses took everyone 
     to the Stadium.''
       Not only was Maraney providing pre- and post-game coverage, 
     he was also calling the game. During those years, he got to 
     see some of the greats of congressional baseball history: 
     Indiana Democratic Sen. Birch Bayh (``He was sensational!''); 
     former major league pitcher Wilmer ``Vinegar Bend'' Mizell, 
     R-N.C.; Massachusetts GOP Rep. Silvio Conte (``He batted with 
     a cigar and came out on crutches one year. And hit a 
     double.'').
       As the 1970s began, Maraney left the Clerk's office and 
     gave up the sports beat for a job with the National Star 
     Route Mail Contractors Association, where he remains as 
     executive director. While he obviously enjoys his job, there 
     are some things he had to leave behind. As Roll Call's sports 
     and community columnist, ``I got invited to everything.''

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