Pelosi Remarks at Photo Opportunity With Senator Specter and Congressman Barton on World Series Wagers

Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami/Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a photo opportunity in her office this afternoon with Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Congressman Joe Barton of Texas on their World Series wagers. Senator Specter presented the Speaker with an enormous block of Hershey’s chocolate and Congressman Barton provided the Speaker with several deep-dish pecan pies from the historic Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. Below are their remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Hello everyone. Today we are settling up.

The San Francisco Giants, as you know, won the World Series, which is a cause for great celebration in our community. I think a million people turned out to celebrate.

And, we had some friendly wagers among our friends of Congress. We also are the beneficiaries of the biggest piece of chocolate I have seen. And I’ve seen some pretty big chocolate.

Thank you, Senator Specter, for your sportsmanship, and your good taste in chocolate and Independence Hall on top of it all.

And thank you Congressman Barton for the pecan pies. I think that your team played great. Both teams — the Phillies played great and Texas played great — and I can just smell that pecan pie through the whole series.

So, I was really lucky. Not only did we win, we won in, shall we say, our friendly competitors had very good taste in rewarding our victories.

So, thank you so much for the pies from Texas. Thank you to Pennsylvania Hershey’s and Philadelphia and beyond.

Senator Specter. Well, the Speaker is well-known as a confirmed chocoholic and I’ll be interested to have a report on how many tastings it takes for her to demolish the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.

I compliment not only the Giants, but I compliment the fans. The Philadelphia Phillies fans take second place to no one but they have extraordinary competitors — I attended two of the games and you practically have to stand the whole time — certainly when there were two strikes on a Philly and you have to stand and it is very compact and I didn’t mind having the relief pitchers exposed along the baseline — it was difficult moving through the corridors. Not that there was any need for me to go to the men’s room, but just getting in and out of the place was extraordinary.

Congratulations Madam Speaker and wait till next year. [Laughter.]

Speaker Pelosi. Oh yes, I am.

Congressman Barton. Well, Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Texas Rangers, and the two owners of the team, Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan, we’re very sad to have to deliver on our bet to you, but we’re very happy to be here in the spirit of positive competition.

I too attended two of the World Series games that the Rangers played in the ballpark in Arlington and your pitching staff was just unbelievable. I have a little 5-year-old son and he was rooting: “Way to go Rangers. Way to go Rangers.” And every time we got a man on base, the next guy would pop out or fly out or whatever.

So, you and your staff enjoy these pecan pies — deep dish chocolate pecan pies from the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. They are really, really good. We brought enough for you to have one all your own. But you have been a very gracious Speaker and you’ve been very gracious in your sportsmanship. And while I’m sad that the Rangers lost, it is with sincere appreciation that I honor our bet and give you the spoils of the victory.

Speaker Pelosi. Well I appreciate that. Thank you so much. And you talked about Texas and I have three grandsons in Texas, so I’m not sure where their loyalties were. I didn’t ask.

But Senator Specter mentioned the fans and it’s amazing to see what sports and sportsmanship does to unify communities. Everything else goes by the bye and it’s — politics is, you know — everything is — it’s the greatest diversion really. And our fans are spectacular. As I said, a million of them showed up, at least 1 million for the parade. I said in the spirit of friendship to my grandsons, isn’t it great just to get to the World Series? And that’s a pretty big honor just to get to the playoffs. But really, everybody wanted to win.

But thank you so much for these wonderful gifts and we’ll see what happens next year, but in the meantime I’m sure we’ll take care of this chocolate. I myself am going to work on the dark chocolate for starters.

Thank you all.

Q: Are you going to make a gesture like Brian Wilson did at the end of the game? The relief pitcher…

Speaker Pelosi. I was going to come in with a beard but I decided….[Laughter.]