December 9, 2008 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S10823 

gave, as Lincoln said, ‘‘the last full 

measure of devotion to their country.’’ 

To the families of those who have died 

or for those family members who are 

remembering those who are far away 

serving our country, in either instance, 

either by way of the loss of a loved one 

or because of distance, there is obviously a void in their lives. The words of 

the great recording artist Bruce 

Springsteen come to mind when I think 

of what these families are living 

through today. I remember the words 

from a song he wrote right after the 9/ 

11 tragedy as he came out with a number of songs. One of them was ‘‘Missing.’’ Some of the lines from that song 

go as follows: 

When I shut out the lights, you’re missing. 

When I close my eyes, you’re missing. 

When I see the sunrise, you’re missing. 

I believe so many families feel that 

today. They know that someone who 

was in their lives, a member of their 

family, a son or daughter, a husband or 

wife who was among them and living 

and then went off to serve and lost 

their life, they feel that sense of missing a family member or a loved one. 

But even if they are just away for 6 

months or a couple of months or even 

a year, they are missing, especially at 

this holiday season. So we are thinking 

of them today, those families who are 

living with that loss or living with that 

void. 

So far, 190 sons and daughters of the 

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have 

sacrificed their lives during Operation 

Iraqi Freedom. Since the last time I 

paid tribute to those who have fallen, 

21 Pennsylvania families have lost 

their loved ones. Today I would like to 

honor each of them by reading their 

names into the RECORD: 

Aviation Boatswain Mate 3rd Class Daniel 

Verbeke of Exton, PA; 

PFC Joshua Waltenbaugh of Ford City, PA; 

LCpl Travis Stottlemyer of Hatfield, PA; 

PFC James Yohn of Highspire, PA; 

SFC Shawn Suzch of Hilltown, PA; 

LTC Ralph Marino of Houston, PA; 

SPC Jason Kazarick of Oakmont, PA; 

SSG Ryan Maseth of Pittsburgh, PA; 

SGT Timothy Van Orman of Port Matilda, 

PA; 

CPT Nathan Raudenbush of Royersford, PA; 

SPC Luke Runyan of Spring Grove, PA; 

Chief Petty Officer Michael Koch of State 

College, PA; 

SSG Brian Hause of Stoytown, PA; 

SPC Michael Hook of Altoona, PA; 

SPC Zachary Clouser of Dover, PA; 

SFC Michael Tully of Falls Creek, PA; 

SSG David Wieger of North Huntingdon, PA; 

SPC Camy Florexil of Philadelphia, PA; 

PFC Adam Chitjian of Philadelphia, PA; 

SFC David Cooper Jr. of State College, PA; 

and finally 

CPT Erick Foster of Wexford, PA. 

To each of their families, please 

know our thoughts are with you today. 

I extend my sincere gratitude to each 

of these men and women for accepting 

the call to service. These men were 

courageous warriors who belonged to 

the finest military in the world and 

contributed to something larger than 

themselves. Later this week I will 

honor those who lost their lives during 

Operation Enduring Freedom. 

I also personally thank the men and 

women of the Pennsylvania National 

Guard. The Pennsylvania Guard’s 

motto is ‘‘civilian in peace, soldier in 

war.’’ They have certainly lived up to 

that motto. With two units deploying 

this winter and spring, the Pennsylvania National Guard is in the midst of 

its largest deployment since the Korean war. The 20,000 members of the 

Pennsylvania National Guard who give 

up the comforts of their civilian lives 

at a moment’s notice, who protect 

Americans in the mountains of Afghanistan, the sands of Iraq, and worldwide, 

and who rescue Americans from devastating floods and natural disasters 

deserve our highest praise. Therefore, 

at this holiday season, I want the men 

and women in service to our country to 

know we are thinking of them, we are 

praying for their safety and well-being 

and for that of their families. 

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll. 

The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll. 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the 

quorum call be rescinded. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered. 

f 

TRIBUTE TO GREG MADDUX 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, as a little 

boy in Searchlight, as I was growing 

up, I used to listen every day to the 

‘‘Game of the Day’’ baseball on the 

radio, and because there was no entertainment in Searchlight, I loved those 

games. I listened to them. Dizzy Dean 

was one of the announcers, and a guy 

named Al Helfer was one of the announcers. I thought they were very 

good, very entertaining. In the seventh 

inning stretch, Dizzy would always 

sing ‘‘The Wabash Cannonball.’’ 

Now, in my youthful mind, one thing 

I wanted to do more than anything else 

was to be a baseball player. In Searchlight, we tried to play baseball. We had 

a little field there. We did not have 

enough boys for the team, so we had 

one girl who made up the nine players. 

Her name was Mary Ann Meyers. She 

still lives in Searchlight. She was really quite good—frankly, better than a 

lot of the boys. She rode a horse bareback as well as anyone could ride with 

a saddle. 

I spent a lot of my daydreaming playing baseball. I had a little paddle of 

some kind, and I would throw rocks in 

the air and hit them with that. That 

was part of my entertainment. I did 

that for a long time. 

As they had no high school in 

Searchlight, I went to Basic High 

School in Henderson, NV, which was 45 

miles away. I stayed with people during the week and would come home on 

a lot of weekends if I could. They did 

not have a freshman baseball team. 

They had no baseball team. I guess 

maybe if there had been a freshman 

good enough—I do not really think 

that was the case; I do not think they 

let freshmen be on the baseball team. 

My sophomore year, I went out for 

baseball. I was one of two sophomores 

to make that team. It was so exciting 

for me. That team was so good, we 

were so good, we won the Nevada State 

Championship. The first year they had 

a championship, we won. We beat 

Fallon. We had a pitcher by the name 

of Rey Martinez who later became my 

chief of staff and was a left-handed 

pitcher who was very good. We were so 

good that we beat all of the Nevada 

schools and all of the California 

schools. Even though we were from 

that little industrial town in southern 

Nevada, we were the California Interscholastic Federation champions. We 

beat them all. 

Now, I would like to stand before everybody here and say that one reason 

that was the case is I was instrumental 

in getting hits at the right time and 

making stellar plays, stealing bases as 

I dreamed I would do as a kid. But I sat 

on the bench most of the time. I caught 

batting practice. I was a catcher. But I 

felt that I was part of that team and 

will never forget my experiences there 

playing baseball. 

My friend Don Wilson, who was the 

other sophomore, was a State batting 

champion. He was terrific, a great athlete. He went on the play at Arizona 

State. But we had tremendous athletes. 

We had Norman Craft, who was our 

center fielder, who was a Big 10 football player playing at Indiana. 

I went to college on a football-baseball scholarship. I was a lot bigger then 

than I am now. I weighed almost 190 

pounds. But I got hurt early in my college athletic career—meaning football—and I came to the realization that 

I was not the athlete of my dreams. I 

was not big enough, fast enough, or 

good enough. So my athletic career, as 

a freshman in college, ended. I fought 

after that, but not as the baseball-football player I dreamed of being. 

The reason I mention all of this 

today is to tell everyone within the 

sound of my voice how much I love 

baseball. I love athletics. I think it is 

so good and it is so wonderful that 

women can now participate just like 

men—boys and girls can participate. 

When I was in high school, the only 

thing my wife could do—she was far 

more athletic than I am or I was—is be 

a cheerleader. That was all she could 

do. There was not a single program for 

girls. So now we have programs equally 

for girls and boys, and that is exiting 

and wonderful, and I am happy that is 

the case. 

The reason I mention all of this 

today is that yesterday in Las Vegas 

was a very big day for people who love 

baseball. It was an important day, but 

in some ways it was kind of a sentimental day because the great Greg 

Maddux announced his retirement. 

Gregg Maddux, one of the greatest 

baseball players of all time, announced 


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S10824 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 9, 2008 

his retirement yesterday after 23 seasons in the big leagues. Greg Maddux 

announced his retirement. He is such a 

fine person, unassuming. We see all of 

the negative things about athletes 

today, their taking steroids and fighting at bars and carrying guns into bars 

and shooting themselves in the leg and 

having dogs fight each other, not setting good examples for kids as to how 

they treat women. Greg Maddux stood 

for everything that they didn’t—a wonderful family man, beautiful children, 

who prizes his family. 

This is not a speech about some guy 

who played baseball in Las Vegas. This 

is a statement about one of the greatest baseball players of all time. You 

take the thousands of people who have 

pitched in the big leagues, Greg 

Maddux, this small man, relatively 

small man, who never lifted a weight in 

his life, is eighth on the all-time list of 

pitchers, Cy Young, go down the list, 

Warren Spahn, Greg Maddux; he is 10 

games away from being in the top four 

or five—10 wins. 

Another reason it is so important is 

that Greg Maddux is from Las Vegas. 

He never left. He went away for 23 

years, spent half the year playing baseball, sometimes more than that, but he 

always came home. Las Vegas is home. 

That is where his kids go to school. 

So this is a statement about a wonderful man who is a role model for anyone who participates in athletics but 

also someone Nevada is very proud of. 

He went to Valley High School, a high 

school that is still there. There are 

wonderful stories about this boy who 

went to that high school. A columnist 

from a prominent newspaper—I think 

that is where it was—a few years ago 

wrote a story, a column about Greg 

Maddux. He was a senior in high 

school. They had this skinny little 

sophomore who was going to pitch 

against him and his team. And he 

looked forward to batting against this 

skinny little sophomore who was pitching for Valley High School. And he describes in the column he wrote, he 

struck out every time he got up 

against this guy and they were, of 

course, beaten. Stories like that are all 

over Nevada about what he did in his 

youth. 

Greg will soon be 43 years old. Yesterday he held a press conference. In effect what he said is: Thank you to everybody in baseball. He said: I still 

think I could play this game but not as 

well as I would like to, so it is time to 

say goodbye. And that is what he did. 

His accomplishments are legendary; 

355 games he won. He won more games 

than Roger Clemens, and he did it 

without taking any supplements of any 

kind. I repeat what he told me. He said: 

You know, I have never lifted a weight. 

He said: When I was in high school, a 

physical therapist said: Don’t mess 

with your body. And Gregg may have 

pushed a few weights with his legs, but 

no way did he touch his arm, not because his arm had such great power, 

because he didn’t throw as hard as a lot 

of pitchers, but his accuracy was nearly perfect. 

Of the seven men in front of him on 

the victory list, only Warren Spahn 

pitched in the second half of the last 

century. He is the only 300 game winner to have more than 3,000 strikeouts 

and less than 1,000 walks. He averaged 

less than 30 walks per year. That is a 

remarkable accomplishment; the first 

player in the history of baseball to win 

at least 15 games in 17 straight years; 

the only player in the history of baseball to win 13 games over 20 years. 

He won four straight Cy Young 

awards. He won a World Series with the 

Atlanta Braves. He won 18 Gold Gloves. 

What is a Gold Glove? That means you 

are the best fielder in baseball at that 

position. He won 18 of them. No one 

will ever match that. That is for his 

fielding excellence. That is the most of 

any player ever, 18 Gold Gloves. 

How did he do this, a man who didn’t 

throw that hard, wasn’t a monster on 

the mound being 6 foot 9? He was about 

my size, a little heavier than I am. He 

was able to do that because of his consistency, his control, and his mental 

acuity. He studied those batters. He 

knew their weaknesses and their 

strengths, and everyone marveled at 

how he could throw that baseball. 

The stories will go on and on about 

Greg Maddux, but one story is not legend. It is true. For a sportswriter’s entertainment, he said: Have the catcher 

hold up his glove and then we will 

make sure the catcher can’t see so he 

can’t move his hand. Let’s see if you 

can hit that glove. 

Think about that. The catcher is, in 

effect, blindfolded. He didn’t do it once. 

He did it three times. Think about 

that. For those of us who have ever 

thrown a baseball, to hit that target is 

pretty significant. He is a man of humility. I just am so proud of Greg 

Maddux. I don’t know what team I am 

going to root for now, because when he 

was with the Cubs, I was a Cub fan. 

When he was with the Atlanta Braves, 

I was a Braves fan. As difficult as it 

was playing for those losers, the Padres; they wouldn’t get him any runs, I 

followed them because I knew Greg 

Maddux was on that team. And then he 

went with the Dodgers, and I became a 

Dodger fan. I don’t know who I am 

going to cheer for. I really don’t know. 

His brother is a wonderful man. He 

was a long-time pitching coach for the 

Milwaukee Brewers. He has now, I understand, gone with the Texas Rangers. 

Whenever he came to town, I tried to 

visit with him. He was also a major 

league pitcher, 5 or 6 years older than 

his little brother Greg, but always 

looked out for him and was always so 

proud of him. 

I want the record to reflect that 

America lost from baseball a great 

human being yesterday. But for us in 

Nevada, the place of his home, we still 

have Greg Maddux. His ties to Las 

Vegas make us all so very proud. Local 

historians will say—and rightfully so— 

that Greg Maddux is the greatest athlete in the history of our State. 

RECESS 

Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent 

that the Senate stand in recess until 

2:30 today. 

There being no objection, the Senate, 

at 12:54 p.m., recessed until 2:30 p.m. 

and reassembled when called to order 

by the Presiding Officer (Mr. CARPER). 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who 

seeks recognition? 

The majority leader is recognized. 

f 

AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY 

LEGISLATION 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I just finished a meeting with my staff representative who has been working with 

the two Banking Committees and the 

White House on the Detroit situation 

that we are trying to work out. I think 

there has been a whole lot of progress 

made. I hope the White House will be 

meeting with Senator MCCONNELL in 

the near future and we can start moving forward. 

We very much want to complete this 

as soon as possible. I have had calls 

from lots of different Senators, all having very important things to do and 

places to go dealing with their service 

as a Senator. I think it is going to be 

very difficult to get a vote today. The 

legislation is not drafted yet. Most of 

it is, but there are a couple provisions 

they are working on. So I think it is 

very unlikely there will be votes 

today—not impossible but unlikely. It 

is more likely there will be something 

tomorrow. 

But everyone should understand, if 

we have a number of Senators who are 

objecting, who want to slow this 

down—they have a right to do that; I 

understand that—we are going to complete the process. That being the case— 

everyone knows the rules around here; 

and I do—it may be necessary, if we get 

some push back from some of our Senators, where we have to go through the 

process of moving to proceed and filing 

cloture and all that kind of stuff—if 

that is the case, everyone should understand we are going to work until we 

complete this. 

The American people want us to 

make a decision. I am fairly confident 

that all the work that has gone into 

this is going to bear fruit, that we will 

be able to pass legislation that will be 

good legislation. It will help the workers. When I say ‘‘the workers,’’ not 

only those people who are directly employed by the automobile manufacturers, but the suppliers, the bondholders, 

and on and on down the road. A lot of 

people are dependent on our doing 

something that is appropriate, and I 

think that can be done. 

We are going to have a vote on this 

sometime. We can either have it sooner 

or we can have it later. But everyone 

should understand there will be no 

stalling us from doing this. We are 

going to complete this legislation. 

That may mean—and people have 

heard me talk about this before, but 


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