WASHINGTON — Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers visited the White House after winning the World Series last season.
Ohtani was praised for becoming baseball’s first 50 home run-50 stolen base player, Betts for his play, and Japanese pitcher Yoshi Yamamoto and NL Championship Series MVP Tommy Edman were singled out.
Betts, the star outfielder at the time for the 2018 champion Boston Red Sox, did not make that team’s trip to the White House the next year. Betts was on the Dodgers when they won the World Series in 2020 and attended the celebration the following year.
The 32-year-old Betts is the lone Black player on the Dodgers who returned from last season’s World Series team.
“Nobody else in this clubhouse has to go through a decision like this except me,” Betts said of his decision. “That’s what makes it tough. But it is what it is. I’m not trying to make this political by any means at all. All it is is just me being with my team to celebrate something. It’s a privilege to get an invitation like this. I just want to be there with them.”
Manager Dave Roberts had called the invitation a huge honor that each World Series champion gets to experience. Roberts said deciding to go to the White House was not a formal conversation he and players had.
The trip came after a Department of Defense webpage describing Brooklyn Dodgers great and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson’s military service was restored after it had come down.
That development came after pages honoring a Black Medal of Honor winner and Japanese American service members were taken down — which the Pentagon said was a mistake — amid the department’s effort to remove content singling out the contributions by women and minority groups.
Neither Robinson nor any other previous Dodgers greats were mentioned at the ceremony.
Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter and pitcher Clayton Kershaw gave brief remarks at the White House.
The White House also said recently the NFL’s Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles accepted their invitation for April 28.
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