Democrats are looking to break a five-year losing streak at Wednesday night’s Congressional Baseball Game, hoping a revamped roster will be enough to beat Republicans.
But partisan rivalry aside, research suggests the game may boost legislative collaboration.
Playing baseball gives legislators the chance to forge bonds outside the halls of the Capitol, according to SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor, an assistant professor of public policy and politics at the University of Virginia.
Gaynor got the idea when former Reps. Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., and Charles Boustany, R-La., spoke to an undergraduate class she was teaching and seemed glad to see each other. They explained they had become friends through the Congressional Baseball Game.
“After class, one of my students and I were like, this is interesting, I wonder if this is a one-off thing or not? So we tracked down all the rosters with the clerk’s office, and we also collected every co-sponsorship that occurred in the House … and matched up the data.”
