World Series Champion Houston Astros Honored at White House
One thing that you have to say about Major League Baseball is that unlike the NFL and NBA, it hasn’t yet been infected by the social justice warrior cancer that has all but ruined the other sports.
Only weeks after the NBA champion Golden State Warriors made a big deal out of snubbing President Trump by instead going to the African American history museum when they were in Washington. The team’s political statement got all the press but what was omitted is that Trump didn’t invite them after Stephen Curry made it clear that the team would diss the POTUS last fall.
That was not the case with the World Series champion Houston Astros who on Monday showed up to be honored as is the tradition with the winners of major sports titles.
It was my great honor to welcome the 2017 World Series Champion Houston @Astros to the @WhiteHouse! #HoustonStrong pic.twitter.com/IO6B42jixA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2018
Via ESPN “World Series champions Houston Astros visit White House”:
President Donald Trump welcomed the Houston Astros to the White House on Monday.
Trump hailed the Astros for their outstanding season, which culminated with the first title in franchise history, a seven-game victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“To all of the players and the management of the Houston Astros, I want to say thank for being true champions on and off the field,” Trump said during a half-hour ceremony in the East Room. “You really exemplify what greatness is all about. And it’s a credit to the players here today.”
He also praised the club for its efforts in helping the city of Houston overcome the damage caused last summer by Hurricane Harvey.
“After the devastating Hurricane Harvey, what you went through with Harvey, it was a befitting tribute, what was really a show of Houston Strong.”
Only a few members of the team didn’t go and they were Puerto Ricans who were upset over the response to Hurricane Maria but didn’t break out their soapboxes to blast Trump.
According to the Washington Post:
The Houston Astros visited President Trump at the White House on Monday to celebrate last year’s World Series victory. All-star shortstop Carlos Correa was not with them, the Houston Chronicle’s Matt Young reports.
A team spokesman told Jon Heyman that Correa “and other” Astros had a “family obligation.”
Now-retired outfielder-designated hitter Carlos Beltran didn’t join his former teammates, either. Last month, he told reporters at an event in New York that he would skip the White House visit, not because of anything Trump did or said but because he was disappointed in the government’s response to Hurricane Maria, which ravaged Beltran’s home territory of Puerto Rico last year. Correa also hails from Puerto Rico.
“No, I’m not going to go. Honestly, I’m not going. I’m going to stay with my family,” Beltran said. “I’m going to be here in New York City.”
Trump is “the President of the United States. If sometimes we don’t like the things that he does, or we like the things that he does, at the end of the day he’s the president, so [politics] have nothing to do with that,” Beltran continued. “Honestly, I’m not into politics. I’m more into the baseball side of it, sports side of it. That’s something that I don’t have a lot of opinion on that. I mean, I’m retired. I feel like I don’t belong to any team. I just feel like I belong to the only team — and that’s my family. That’s the team that I belong [to] right now. I wish [Astros players] the best over there. I hope they have a great time, enjoy their day, with what it comes to visit the White House.”
But with the media being the dishonest pack of scandal-mongering disinformation agents that they are, they tried to find some way to turn the ceremony into an anti-Trump statement, choosing to report on All-Star 2nd baseman Jose Altuve’s less than enthusiastic look while he stood behind the president with the rest of his teammates.
The Astros second baseman appeared stone-faced through most of the visit. https://t.co/uJqs6QKmZo
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) March 13, 2018
Spin it as they may, at least Altuve manned up and made the trip unlike the whiners and grievance mongers in other sports. The Astros were the second team that chose to not make a political ordeal out of the White House visit, the NHL Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins showed up to be honored for their achievement back in October.
Here’s the video of the event via the official White House website:
