Pat Malone Mr. Baseball Washington DC

Published: Jan. 26, 2017, 4:24 p.m.

b'Pat Malone on promoting Washington DC at MLB Expansion meeting - \\n\\n"I just took my whole script and I chucked it . . . I gave my pitch from a passionate fan\'s point of view of why Washington should have baseball back in DC. When the meeting was over, George Steinbrenner, he comes up to me and says, \'Pat, I got to tell you something. When you took that script and you whipped it in the trash, I looked around the table, and everybody is now watching what you were saying and they were listening to what you were saying.\'"\\n\\nPat Malone, Mr. Baseball, Washington DC\\n\\nA Ockershausen: This is Andy Ockershausen and this is Our Town. We have a special guest today that I attribute the idea, and you can live with it, audience, or not. This man is more responsible than anybody I know\\nto bring baseball back to Washington. When I first met this young man, he was a Sergeant in the United States Air Force. I said, "He ought to be defending us instead of promoting baseball," but there he was. That\'s Pat Malone. Pat, welcome to Our Town.\\nThe Early Years\\nPat Malone: Andy, thank you so much. I want to tell you something. I\'m just overjoyed to be here, really, because this is a part of Our Town which you and I both as Washingtonians- you\'re a fourth-generation Washingtonian. I\'m a second-generation Washingtonian. This is just beautiful. I\'m really happy to be here with you.\\nA Ockershausen: Pat, it\'s about Our Town and you\'re such a big part of Our Town and I know that. I\'ll get back to that Air Force uniform first and last. Pat, you\'re from Punta Gorda, Florida? \\nPat Malone: Well, I\'m from here. I was born at Georgetown University Hospital, so I\'m a second-generation Washingtonian.\\nA Ockershausen: What were you doing in Florida?\\nPat Malone: Dad said you couldn\'t play golf in the winter, so we moved to Florida. \\nA Ockershausen: Was he a government employee at the time?\\nPat Malone: No, Dad was a golf pro.\\nA Ockershausen: I didn\'t know that.\\nPat Malone: Yeah, sure. He was up at Burning Tree with Max Elbin. He was at Norbeck with Henry Girardi.\\nA Ockershausen: He had all the good clubs then.\\nPat Malone: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.\\nA Ockershausen: I used to play a lot at clubs and never, like Nat Allbright. You remember Nat of course?\\nPat Malone: Yeah, sure. \\nA Ockershausen: Your dad went to Florida and you went with him and you were born in Florida?\\nPat Malone: No, I was born in DC.\\nA Ockershausen: And moved to Punta Gorda.\\nPat Malone: Yup. I actually ...\\nA Ockershausen: Went to high school in Sarasota.\\nPat Malone: Sarasota and in Punta Gorda, yup.\\nA Ockershausen: You graduated and you said ... Why did you come back? Your dad came back to Washington?\\nPat Malone: No. Actually what happened was I had a graduation present. It was either a 1970 Chevy Impala, a convertible cherried-out, or a one-way ticket back to Washington DC. I looked up and I saw that one-way ticket. I wanted to come home. \\nA Ockershausen: You got back to Our Town.\\nPat Malone: I came back to Our Town.\\nA Ockershausen: Thank God for that. I\'m sort of a, what do you call it? A weirdo. I never left Our Town. Every place I\'ve ever been, I always thought Washington was a lot better than any place I could be.\\nPat Malone: I\'ll tell you, Andy, it\'s when you leave Our Town you really appreciate Our Town.\\nA Ockershausen: You know it and I know it, Pat. Then you went to school at American University. \\nPat Malone: Yup. Went to AU. Go Eagles.\\nA Ockershausen: You\'re a marketing manager. It got you in the Air Force.\\nMilitary Service - United States Air Force\\nPat Malone: I joined the Air Force. I was actually at Greendale Golf Course in Fairfax County, in the Alexandria part of Fairfax County. I joined the Air Force in 1978 and retired in 1998. \\nA Ockershausen: You got 20 years.\\nPat Malone: 20 years. Yup.\\nA Ockershausen: You enlisted.\\nPat Malone: I enlisted.'