The Dodgers Were Right To Go To The White House
Yesterday the two-time defending World Champions were honored in a ceremony hosted by President Trump in the Rose Garden…
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The Dodgers Went to Trump’s White House. Good.
The Dodgers were under pressure to stay away. They went anyway.
My latest California Post column looks at why accepting President Trump’s invitation to the White House was the right call — and why it was fundamentally different from dragging the team into a political fight.
The Dodgers have now visited the White House in recent years after championships under two very different presidents. They went after winning in 2020. They went after winning in 2024. And this week, after winning their second consecutive World Series, they went again.
Different president. Same tradition.
That matters.
There was plenty of pressure on the Dodgers to boycott this visit, particularly because of the bitter political fight over immigration enforcement in Los Angeles. But turning down a White House invitation because activists object to the president would itself have transformed a baseball tradition into a political statement.
And the ceremony demonstrated what the alternative looks like.
Trump talked baseball. Dave Roberts talked about his players and winning. The Dodgers presented the president with a championship ring and a No. 47 jersey. Politics largely disappeared for a while.
In my full California Post column, I explain why I see no contradiction between supporting this White House visit and criticizing the Dodgers last month when they inserted themselves into the immigration debate.
There is a principle connecting the two.
Sports are one of the increasingly rare places where Americans who disagree about almost everything can still share something. Republicans and Democrats don’t sit in separate sections at Dodger Stadium. Nobody asks how the guy next to him voted before celebrating a home run.
We have politicized enough of American life already.
Baseball doesn’t need to be another casualty.