WASHINGTON — Winning the World Series and earning the celebratory trip to the White House to see the president still isn’t getting old for the Los Angeles Dodgers, even as they’ve won two championships in the past five years.
Manager Dave Roberts, for instance, particularly enjoyed his first peek at the Oval Office, which Dodgers players and staff rolled through, single file, after getting feted by President Donald Trump.
‘I actually got a chance to take a photo in front of the Declaration of Independence,’ Roberts said Monday of the national treasure hanging in the Oval Office.
‘For myself, who’s a History major, that’s a picture I’m going to cherish for a long time.’
History, such as it is these days, was wedged into virtually every minute before and after the Dodgers were toasted in the East Room.
With Trump holding steady on controversial tariffs that have roiled global markets, the Dow Jones Industrial Index was down 709 points, or nearly 2%, as the Dodgers’ ceremony concluded around noon. About an hour after regaling the Dodgers, Trump took a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to talk both tariffs and, as Trump put it, the significant ‘help’ afforded the ally in its war in Gaza.
And as the Dodgers got ready to stretch and warm up for their Monday night game at Nationals Park, the Supreme Court sided with Trump lawyers and placed on hold a judge’s order that the Trump administration must bring back to the United States a Maryland father it had mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
Unprecedented times, indeed.
Trump and his administration’s part in policies that a significant portion of the Dodgers fan base finds odious – and even resulted in the scrubbing of Dodgers trailblazer Jackie Robinson’s accomplishments from a government web site – made this trip a loaded proposition.
Yet unlike 2019, when current Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts and roughly half the 2018 champion Boston Red Sox skipped a trip to Trump’s White House, the Dodgers – save injured star Freddie Freeman – were all present and accounted for.
Even those who had chafed against Trump in the past.
‘They don’t agree with the decision to go,’ says Dodgers playoff hero Kiké Hernández of disillusioned fans, ‘but they have the right to have an opinion.’
Hernández had criticized Trump after his treatment of Puerto Rico in his first term. He was among the handful of Dodgers Trump made a point to depart the dais and shake hands during the 25-minute ceremony.
So, too, was Betts, whom Trump lauded for his ability; the president seemed to hold that handshake a beat longer than those with Hernández, Max Muncy and, of course, the great Shohei Ohtani.
‘A nice touch,’ says Betts. ‘He kind of recognized a lot of us in that situation and I think it kind of shows it wasn’t just one man that won that 2024 World Series. It was a collective unit.’
Betts on Friday confirmed his attendance on the White House trip and told reporters then he was in a no-win situation that ‘comes with the territory, being Black in America in a situation like this. It’s a tough spot to be in. No matter what I choose, somebody is gonna be pissed.’
Monday, he stressed the solidarity with teammates.
‘As long as I’m there with the boys and they’re with me, no matter where we are, we have to celebrate this accomplishment. It was good,’ says Betts. ‘These are the stories we’ll get to tell when we’re done playing. Years from now we’ll call each other, see each other and talk about this.
‘These are essentially the people we kind of do life with. You definitely have to be there with them and have fun with them no matter where you are.’
Trump certainly lapped it up, laying out details of the Dodgers’ playoff run while interspersing his freestyle comments in between, often remarking on being surrounded by such physical talent.
‘These are the best-looking people I’ve ever seen,’ he said after shaking Clayton Kershaw’s hand.
After his remarks, Trump enjoyed a moment with Ohtani in the Oval Office, calling him ‘an amazing athlete and person.’ Ohtani, perhaps the globe’s most talented and well-known athlete, seemed similarly awestruck in the throes of power.
:It’s a tremendous honor to be visiting the White House, to be able to meet with the highest power in this country,’ Ohtani said via club translator Will Ireton after he fell a double short of the cycle in the Dodgers’ 6-4 loss. ‘I am in this country because of the opportunity I was given.
‘So I’m very grateful that I’m here getting to play baseball every day.’
Kershaw, the future Hall of Famer, was tasked with reading prepared comments on behalf of the players, a slightly awkward spot for him since injuries prevented him from pitching in the playoff drive. Freeman, their Game 1 grand slam hero, was the intended speaker, but he was back in California rehabbing his ankle injury, so it was left to the franchise scion.
‘I know there’s been a lot of stuff about should the Dodgers go and all this stuff,’ Kershaw said Monday afternoon. ‘But at the end of the day, getting to go to the White House, getting to see the Oval Office, getting to meet the President of the United States, that’s stuff that you can’t lose sight of, no matter what you believe.
‘I was super honored to get to go today. It was an incredible opportunity and I’m glad we got to be a part of it.’
By evening, the Dodgers were back to the business of baseball, even if they and their owners might’ve been lighter in the pocket with the stock market’s wild roller-coaster ride. History, as Roberts well knows, will render a verdict on this swath of time.
With that in mind, was an Oval Office trip worth it?
‘Coming out of it I think we all felt really good about it,’ Roberts said. ‘We wanted to go there to again recognize our ’24 team. There’s a lot of people in our organization that were there that have different backgrounds, different races, genders and all that stuff, and we were all there.
‘I thought it was a really good experience.’