The Boston Red Sox may have clinched the World Series title on Sunday night — the top crown in professional baseball and the fourth in their history — but it is still unclear whether they’ll visit the White House.
After defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the series 4-1, the team would not commit as of yet to an appearance at the White House next spring to meet President Donald Trump.
When asked about it following the game, team manager Alex Cora said, “We’ll talk about it later on.”
The past two World Series champions prior to Boston — the Houston Astros (2017) and the Chicago Cubs (2016) — both made the trip to the White House.
Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball commissioner, said last week he expects this year’s winner will attend (unlike past NFL and NBA teams), but the Red Sox are giving fans some reason to doubt it.
After all, Cora himself has been critical of the current sitting president in the past, at least when it comes to Puerto Rico. A native of the island himself, Cora slammed President Donald Trump for questioning how reports in September about the death tolls for Hurricane Maria far exceeded the initial reports from last year. Cora called the president’s tweet about the issue “disrespectful” and said it was “more than politics” as to why he was unhappy.
It’s worth noting that Cora did, however, commit to taking the World Series trophy down to Puerto Rico this offseason.
It is also unclear, at least as of right now, if the team will do anything to help the victims and the families affected by the Tree of Life synagogue mass shooting in Pittsburgh over the weekend, as some Pittsburgh sports teams have already committed to do.
In addition, the principal owner of the Red Sox is John Henry, who also owns The Boston Globe, the city’s anti-Trump paper. Not only does Henry have a history of donating large amounts of money to Democratic Party campaigns (over $700,000 from 1998 to 2004, as Boston magazine and other outlets have reported), but the paper’s editorial direction also makes clear he is no fan of the president.
In April 2016, the paper put out a propaganda cover with fake stories it claimed would come to pass if Trump were elected president — and none of them came true.
Their initiative was that the Republican Party should not give him the nomination even though he received enough votes for it.
The principal owner of the Red Sox is John Henry, who also owns The Boston Globe, the city’s anti-Trump paper.
Plus, The Boston Globe coordinated a nationwide editorial attack on the president over the summer; more than 300 newspapers across the country then loaded up their editorial sections with negative pieces about him one August weekend.
Maybe the Red Sox will be able to put politics aside and enjoy a visit — on behalf of their team, their organization, their fans and their fellow Bostonians — to the White House.
However, they’ve not yet even been invited, so time will tell.
Tom Joyce is a freelance writer from the South Shore of Massachusetts. He covers sports, pop culture, and politics and has contributed to The Federalist, Newsday, and other outlets.
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