(NewsNation) — The Los Angeles Dodgers are visiting the White House on Monday to celebrate their win at the 2024 World Series.
Team president Stan Kasten said all the players wanted to attend, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Remember, everyone in here grew up wanting to be a world champion and all the things that come with it, and it comes with a champagne toast, silliness in the locker room, a parade, rings, an invitation to the White House. It’s what they all come to associate with being world champions,” Kasten said. “Everyone wanted to go, and so we did.”
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Dodgers star Mookie Betts did not attend the 2019 trip to the White House after winning the 2018 World Series with the Boston Red Sox during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Betts is planning on visiting this year, however, and said it was not a political decision, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register reported. Betts said he regrets his decision not to participate in the Red Sox’s White House trip.
“I made it about me,” Betts said. “I’m not the same person I was then.”
Another Dodgers player, pitcher Blake Treinen, declined to visit the White House for an event hosted by former President Joe Biden after the Dodgers won the 2020 season.
This year, though, he says he’s “pumped” to meet Trump, NPR reported.
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Monday’s visit comes after a Department of Defense webpage on baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson’s military service went missing amid the department’s campaign to remove content singling out contributions by women and minority groups. Trump has issued a number of executive orders on so-called “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs.
Robinson’s webpage was later restored, and the Pentagon put out a statement.
“We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,” spokesperson John Ullyot said. “In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.”
NewsNation local affiliate KTLA and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
