Okay - then howabout the first black Senator? Carlos Paula? He was a rightfielder, showed some promise but turned out mediocre at best. However, he was from Cuba - the DC crowd should get all hot & bothered over that....
It’s hard to tell who people get more hot and bothered over, sports figures or politicians...
Or they could pick Bobby Estalella (another Cuban), who really was the first black Washington Senator, although he was “passing” as white (he played in the 30s and 40s, pre-integration). Not that he fooled anyone; I believe that it was Shirley Povich that wrote that “there was a Senegambian in the Cuban batpile where Senatorial lumber was strewn.”
But, really, why did they have to pick a person? Why not the Lincoln Memorial with the Washington Monument reflected on the reflecting pool?
I like the fact that Puerto Rico chose the sentry box from El Morro (the Spanish fort built in the 16th Century).