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[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 14, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H302-H303]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

   WINSTON-SALEM DASH--WINSTON-SALEM'S NEW MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I suspect that every Member of this body would 
stand up here at some point and say that he or she lives in the best 
place in the United States or has the best district. I know that I have 
the best district in North Carolina, the Fifth District. It is a very 
diverse district, populated by many great people. The district has 
many, many attributes that people come to visit us for and come to live 
in the district.
  But I want to highlight tonight one of the very positive things 
that's happening in my district this year and to call attention to that 
because so often we're talking about negative things on the floor. It's 
not the best of times economically in our country. But I think we need 
to talk some about positive things that are happening, and I want to 
talk tonight a little bit about a very positive thing that's happening 
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
  Winston-Salem, and it's two towns that came together many years ago, 
those two towns were settled in the mid 1700s by a group of very 
devout, hardworking Moravians, and many of their descendants still live 
in the area.
  What Winston-Salem has decided to do in the last couple of years is 
to work on building a new stadium, a new ballpark, for its minor league 
baseball team and also has been working on coming up with a new name 
for that minor league baseball team. Later this year we expect to see a 
new ballpark in downtown Winston-Salem, which will

[[Page H303]]

be a state-of-the-art facility, and the foundation of this ballpark 
area will develop into an entertainment district over the next few 
years. The new stadium will feature a 15,000 square foot kids' zone, 
full-scale restaurant, 16 luxury suites, and numerous additional 
components that will make it a showcase for the city. The ballpark is 
the result of a public-private partnership in not only the town of 
Winston-Salem but also in Forsyth County.
  Now, the people who own the baseball team thought that it might be an 
interesting time to consider a new name for the baseball team, and so 
they had a ``Name the Team'' contest in which they received over 3,000 
submissions in just 2 weeks. After reviewing the suggestions and 
receiving over 70 submissions for one particular name, the people in 
charge selected ``Dash'' to be the new team name. The idea behind that 
is Dash is what brings the two words, Winston and Salem, together, and 
the vision of the owners is to make the stadium a family-friendly 
environment and gathering place for entertainment within the Winston-
Salem community.
  Now, the Winston-Salem Dash is a minor league baseball team which 
dates back its franchise to 1945. They're a class high-A team in the 
Carolina league, and they have been a farm team of the Chicago White 
Sox since 1997. They'll begin playing in the new Winston-Salem ballpark 
beginning in 2009.
  With its family-friendly entertainment and plain old American style 
fun, I'm sure the Dash is going to be a great success. And just as 
importantly, the new name for the team and the new ballpark are going 
to be an anchor for future development as the team stadium is completed 
and the players take the field this spring.
  I'm looking forward to visiting a home game this spring to enjoy this 
most American of pastimes and support this addition to the Winston-
Salem sports team. And I invite all my colleagues to join me there 
sometime and see that I live in the best district in the country.

                          ____________________
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