The House Divided: The Story of the First Congressional Baseball Game

SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR – American Writing Awards.
WINNER of the 2025 Storytrade Award for Best Book on Politics.

Most years since 1909, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have squared off in a good-natured contest -- the Congressional Baseball Game. Once a modest affair, the event now draws nearly thirty thousand fans and raises more than one million dollars annually for local charities.

This is the story of the very first congressional game. Contemporaneous news accounts were whimsical, to say the least, and the few brief retrospectives on that game have reflected that whimsy. But the fact is that, even as the participants were as light-hearted as the reporters, the first of these games had a most serious purpose.

This is a story about a baseball game, but also one about political gamesmanship. The two were inseparable: The "game" was played to serve the purposes of the chief gamesman.

In 1909, the House of Representatives was immersed in a struggle over a single issue -- tariff reform -- that had all the elements of a sordid political drama -- special interests, sectionalism, ideological clashes, distrust, resentment, personal animosities, intense partisanship, cynicism, and money -- a great deal of money -- all presided over by House Speaker "Uncle Joe" Cannon, a tyrannical leader with an agenda. In the heat of an unairconditioned summer, the pressure on the Hill built to an intolerable level. A safety valve was needed. Enter the Congressional Baseball Game.

Baseball as a recreational sport. Politics as a blood sport. These are the elements of our tale. And when it was over literally everything had changed.

JB Manheim is Professor Emeritus at The George Washington University, where he developed the world's first degree-granting program in political communication and was later founding director of the School of Media & Public Affairs. In 1995 he was named Professor of the Year for the District of Columbia. He learned his love of baseball collecting splinters in Little League, watching Dizzy Dean on the Game of the Week, and huddling with his grandfather for warmth on July nights at The Mistake By The Lake, AKA, Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Manheim applies his expertise in politics and the ways of Washington and his understanding of baseball behind the scenes to offer a fresh perspective on this annual Capitol Hill ritual. JB Manheim is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America.