CUBS TO MAKE ‘VOLUNTARY’ 2ND VISIT TO WHITE HOUSE

The Chicago Cubs will visit the White House on Wednesday, manager Joe Maddon said Tuesday, as he will parlay a visit to a friend in Congress with a trip to the Oval Office. The visit, which Maddon termed voluntary and informal, comes five months after the Cubs celebrated their 2016 World Series title with a White House visit in the final days of Barack Obama’s presidency. Maddon said the team will make the visit out of respect for the office of the presidency and the Ricketts family, which has divergent political interests. Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts donated to President Trump’s campaign, and his brother, Pete Ricketts, is the Republican governor of Nebraska who stumped with Vice President Pence during the 2016 campaign. Todd Ricketts was nominated by Trump to serve as deputy commerce secretary, but he withdrew his name from consideration due to conflicts with family-run enterprises. Laura Ricketts, meanwhile, is a prominent Democratic fundraiser and was instrumental in the Cubs visiting the White House before Obama left office. The Cubs are in the midst of a four-game series against the Washington Nationals that concludes Thursday. “A lot of it prob- ably has to do with the fact that the Ricketts family is tied in there really well,” Maddon said Wednesday. “Whatever Mr. Ricketts would like me to do, I’m gonna do. Mr. Ricketts and the Ricketts family has been good to all of us. Part of that is that, and the other part is whenever you have a chance to go to the White House, I think it’s easy to say yes out of respect to the office.” One of Maddon’s best friends is Congressman Lou Barletta, RPenn., who grew up in Maddon’s hometown of Hazleton, Pa. Barletta invited Maddon to a luncheon Wednesday; after that, Maddon said, “we’re gonna take that on over to the big house.” Maddon termed the visit “absolutely voluntary,” and it comes at a time the gesture has become even more politically charged. While the Stanley Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins have said they would go if invited to Trump’s White House, the NBA champion Golden State Warriors have been far less committal. Most recently, Warriors coach

Steve Kerr said he believes there could be “really positive ramifications if we go” but is leaving it up to his players, if invited. Maddon views the trip more from the view of the office itself and not necessarily its current occupant. “Listen, I like the United States a lot, I like living here a lot, I like every- thing that it represents a lot,” he says. “So when you get a chance as a citizen to get to go to the White House, you go. I think you go.”