John Boehner 8TH DISCTRICT OF OHIO

A familiar face to Cincinnati Reds fans will be joining Speaker Boehner in Washington next week.Teddy Kremer – ex-bat boy for the Reds – and his parents will be guests of the Speaker for President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. If you don’t already know about him,you need to read this feature from the Cincinnati Enquirer by John Erardi on how Teddy joined the Reds for a day and changed the team forever:

“A young man with Down syndrome who really wasn’t supposed to be the batboy – not in the typical sense of the word, anyway – put some spring in the Reds’ steps.

“The remarkable thing wasn’t that Teddy Kremer retrieved bats and foul balls and brought baseballs to the home plate umpire, it is that he did it with such aplomb, gusto and unbridled joy.

“‘They all could tell that Teddy is a guy who never has a bad day. How can you not love a guy like that?’

“But if you know Ted – that’s what he likes being called, even though everybody calls him Teddy – it wasn’t remarkable at all.

“Teddy was just being himself.”

In a front page article this morning, the Enquirer notes that Teddy – who “has been the toast of the town since his enthusiasm and elan captured the fancy of Reds players during his gig as a bat boy at Great American Ball Park” – is a busy guy these days:

“Ted, who recently turned 30, just keeps winding up places. First as a coach on the sidelines with then-Colerain High School football coach Kerry Coombs, then most famously in the Reds dugout last summer as an in-game bat boy. Recently Ted was on the bench with Marquette University basketball coach Buzz Williams at Fifth Third Arena for a game against the University of Cincinnati. …

“This spring, Ted (that’s the name he prefers, although most everybody calls him ‘Teddy,’) has been invited to hand out an award at the Freedom Center and be the subject of a feature on ESPN. …

“He takes ballroom dancing at A-Marika Dance Studio in Evendale. In the spring, he does horse-riding, and in the summer, softball. He swims every Saturday and works three days a week at Hillcrest School in Springfield Township.”

“‘There’s no shortage of Reds fans on our staff,” Speaker Boehner’s Deputy Chief of Staff Dave Schnittger told the Enquirer. “Everybody was familiar with Ted’s story . . . It’s a story that showcases the best of a lot of things the Speaker holds dear -- the city of Cincinnati, the Reds organization and more fundamentally, the idea that every individual has the potential to do amazing things.”

Teddy and his parents will watch the State of the Union from the Speaker’s gallery box in the U.S. House of Representatives. You can watch the address and more on Tuesday night atgop.gov/sotu.