Rep. Erik Paulsen says charity game should still be held, plans to be on field

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen said he plans to be on the field for the congressional baseball match on Thursday even as his teammate and roommate, Rep. Steve Scalise, recovers from being shot at a practice for the game.

"It's more important than ever, I think, that that event take place," Paulsen told the Star Tribune on Wednesday, a few hours after Scalise and several others were injured by shots from a gunman at baseball field in Alexandria, Va.

Paulsen, a Republican from Minnesota's Third Congressional District, rooms with Scalise and two other Republican congressmen in Washington, and all play on the Republican baseball team. Paulsen skipped practice Wednesday morning; a few hours later, he visited Scalise at the hospital, after he underwent two surgical procedures. A third surgery was possible, Paulsen said.

The injuries "were more extensive than they thought," Paulsen said.

Paulsen said he's played many times at the site where the shooting occurred.

"Having been to that field and seen the layout, you can certainly understand how that situation could have been truly terrible," said Paulsen. "It could have been a lot worse."

The room in the shared house with Scalise and two other House Republicans came with one condition, as Paulsen told the Roll Call newspaper back in 2011: He'd have to sign up for the Republican congressional baseball team.

Minnesota U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, a DFLer, was also scheduled to be on a separate practice field nearby to warm up with the Democrats ahead of Thursday's big game — Republicans vs. Democrats — but was not there when violence struck. Photos on Twitter showed the Democratic team huddled together in prayer as they received word.

"My prayers go out to the victims of the congressional baseball practice shooting. Thank you to Capitol Police for your heroism and service," Walz tweeted.

Paulsen said he'd be wearing his Minnesota Twins jersey with a #3 on Thursday; he said his housemates have been known to tease him when he walked in with hockey gear: Why don't you play an American sport, they'd joke.

The annual game is a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Clubs.

This isn't the first time that Paulsen has seen a friend in Congress shot. He was close with U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who was shot in the head in 2011 in an attack that killed six people and wounded 15. Giffords resigned from the House the following year. Paulsen met Giffords and her future husband, Mark Kelly, in 2005 during a fellowship program on relations between the U.S. and China, before they served in Washington.