The 2024 World Series Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, will be honored by President Trump at the White House on Monday before opening a series with the Washington Nationals.
Shortstop Mookie Betts said he will attend after he declined to attend a previous ceremony during President Donald Trump’s first term.
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 under President Joe Biden.
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 ahead of Friday’s game in Philadelphia. “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.”
The Dodgers confirmed in a social media post last month that “in keeping with long-standing baseball tradition,” Trump invited them, and they accepted.
Manager Dave Roberts called it 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.
Roberts said Friday he expected 100% participation at the ceremony and that it was “good we have full representation.”
