Illinois congresswoman plays in her final Congressional Women’s Softball Game

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - The annual Congressional Women’s Softball Game took place in Washington Wednesday night as a team of congresswomen battled the women of the press.

The Members of Congress and Bad News Babes teams trading pens, cameras, recorders and microphones for gloves and bats for the fourteenth straight year.

“Keep in mind that we’re playing the Washington women’s press corps. They’re probably on average half our age,” said Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.).

The two groups came together at the Watkins Recreation Center to raise money and awareness for breast cancer.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) co-founded the game in 2009 with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) after Wasserman Schultz was diagnosed.

“This is something that we care deeply about because so many young women in their 20s, 30s and 40s would never get a mammogram, would never even do a breast exam and they need to because they’re absolutely vulnerable,” said Gillibrand.

Bustos, who played in her tenth and final game, said she suited up for her sister who beat breast cancer and her mom who is in the middle of her own fight.

“(My mom is) certainly not a young woman with breast cancer. But yeah so, you know, it’s something that’s very personal to me,” said Bustos.

The Congressional Women’s Softball game has raised more than $2 million for Young Survival Coalition, a non-profit helping adults battling breast cancer.

The Members of Congress beat the Bad News Babes 6-5, ending the press’ streak going back to 2016. They also raised more than $500,000 for this year’s event.