Sox, Trump can hang out
World Series champions made the right call to visit White House
The Red Sox will visit the White House next year and plenty of folks are already turning blue. It was an easy decision to accept President Trump’s invitation to celebrate Boston’s ninth World Series title, at least according to team CEO, President and Overlord-In-Waiting Sam Kennedy. “It’s an invitation. It’s not a mandatory, command performance,” Kennedy said last week. “It’s an opportunity for these guys to get the recognition they deserve for a world championship.” You’d think State Run Media would be swooning over the thought of a Kennedy returning to the White House in 2019. Nope. The reaction and reportage delivered was as predictable as potholes on Mass. Ave. in the spring. It took two writers from the Nation to condemn Boston’s planned visit by writing: “Do the Red Sox want to allow Trump — whose presidency is rooted in appeals to racism, sexism, and immigrant bashing — to bask in the glow of their victory?” Similar trite talking points flowed locally. Meanwhile, a Globe columnist – apologetically if not apoplectically – informed us that there are “Republicans and devout gun owners in the Red Sox clubhouse.” That last statement is chilling … for anyone who believes in the first and/or second amendment. It’s only a matter of time before scores of nonexistent fans from hamlets such as Sudbury, Newton, Cambridge and Northampton are spotlighted on the news weeping into their “H18TORY MADE” T-shirts wailing about the damage this Red Sox expedition will cause their bubble-wrapped children. We saw it when the Patriots – minus Tom Brady – visited the White House in 2017. The twist on all this self-aggrandizing and angst is that Trump might not be living in White House when the Red Sox arrive. Boston’s visit is likely to occur during spring training or on April 17 (an off-day Thursday between series in New York and Tampa Bay). Based on what I’ve read and seen in the past 24 hours, Trump should be impeached, and Vice President Pence should be bunking with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, no later than Valentine’s Day. Imagine President Nancy Pelosi muttering her way through the ceremony by lauding the Red Sox for thrilling baseball fans on America’s “North, South and West” coasts. Wisely Kennedy and Red Sox manager Alex Cora are not playing politics with any of this. Kennedy sees none of this is a partisan endorsement, but rather simply “an honor and a privilege.” The Red Sox visited the White House during the Bush 43 and Obama administrations. They did not have reason to go between Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton. “We’ve got 330 men and women within the organization. Certainly, people will have different personal opinions, but this is one of those moments where you try to put personal opinions aside and do what’s best for the organization,” Kennedy said on WEEI Tuesday. More importantly, Cora’s presence at the White House will give players who do go to it cover from the predictable contempt. “Team chemistry,” “I’m supporting my manager” and “It’s an honor to visit the White House,” should be sufficient to silence the accredited mobs seeking blood and sinew from players in attendance. Cora, meanwhile, says he’ll use his platform in “the right way.” Given the right opportunity, he will likely share his thoughts directly with President Trump on how things were handled in Cora’s native Puerto Rico postHurricane Maria. Or maybe it will be President Pelosi.