It’s traditional for World Series champions to spend part of their celebration at the White House with the residing president. This year, the Boston Red Sox team took the #1 spot in a stunning victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers after ending the season with the best standings in both the American and National Leagues. In other words, they more than deserved their title.
Now, after the biggest year by any team, some of the key BoSox players say they want nothing to do with the White House festivities, rescheduled to take place on May 9, if Donald Trump is there. Peter Abraham with the Boston Globe reports that Red Sox star Mookie Betts, who is the AL/American League’s MVP/Most Valuable Player’ and Silver Slugger is officially refusing the invite.
“I won’t be going there.”
And Boston’s very admired and respected manager Alex Cora is on the fence with his own reasons:
It is also unclear if Red Sox manager Alex Cora will accompany the team to the White House since he was publicly critical of how President Donald Trump spoke about Hurricane Maria, which ravaged Cora's native Puerto Rico in 2017.
It’s reported Cora may go there only to make a case to Trump for/about Puerto Rico.
Rafael Devers says he will boycott the event and three other players, Eduardo Rodriguez, Xander Bogaerts and Eduard Nunez, are contemplating turning down what some would call a once in a lifetime opportunity. Some report the government shutdown is part of the reason players are dissing the president. That and the fact that Trump is a serial racist.
Trump is not popular among many athletes after his vile language towards minorities and his public ruthless, ugly and condescending ridicule of NFL football player Colin Kaepernick, who began taking a knee during football game national anthems to protest the treatment of African Americans in America. Though the former quarterback was later dissed by the NFL, reportedly due to the controversy, he became a national hero, winning award after award, and he will go down in history as such.
The Red Sox players are not the first champions from this past year to refuse a chance to meet with Donald Trump to further revel in their national victory. All of the Golden State Warriors opted not to visit the White House while Trump is in office, and recently met with former President Barack Obama while in Washington D.C. instead of Trump.
And after winning the 2018 Super Bowl, a good number of the Philadelphia Eagles bowed out of attending the same celebration with Trump, which caused a so-called world leader to cancel the event and pull a, “I’m breaking up with you, before you can break up with me.” That’s how Trump rolls.
Cheers to the athletes and all celebrities who publicly condemn racism and corruption and who stand up for the good and true American values.