Most of the team’s Latino and black players are skipping a traditional ceremony at the White House, which the white players will attend.
By David Nakamura and David Nakamura Reporter covering the White House Email Bio Follow Ashley Parker Ashley Parker White House reporter Email Bio Follow May 9 at 10:44 AM BALTIMORE — It was an iconic baseball celebration: Boston Red Sox catcher Christian Vázquez leaping into the arms of pitcher Chris Sale after the final out of the World Series last fall, teammates in perfect unison.
“It really shows the divide and the place we’re in in our country,” said the retired figure skater Adam Rippon, who won bronze at the Winter Olympics last year but did not participate in Team USA’s visit to the White House. On Twitter, Rippon, who is gay, declared he would “not stand with” an administration he said is willing to “discriminate against those that they perceive as different.”
Entire teams, such as the University of Virginia men’s basketball squad this month, have declined invitations, while the White House has not extended offers to some women’s teams, including two WNBA champions, which have typically been on the list. “It’s like he opened Pandora’s box,” said de Lavallade, who had performed for President Lyndon B. Johnson. She cited Trump’s equivocations in denouncing the marchers in a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville for prompting her decision.
Red Sox President Sam Kennedy said the organization decided after winning the 2004 World Series that it would adopt an “apolitical” position and accept invitations to the White House based on respect for the institution. Most players showed up in 2005 and 2008 to meet President George W. Bush and in 2014 to meet President Barack Obama.
Cora has been dogged by questions, and he said before the game Wednesday that he was done addressing the matter. The players “know how I feel,” he told reporters. “We just put it to rest.” In Boston, the racial division has threatened to erode some of the good feeling from last year and hearken the team’s troubled history with segregation. The Red Sox were the last Major League franchise to desegregate, in 1957, under their longtime owner Tom Yawkey.
At times, players drifted into small groups. Four white players began a card game, while Vázquez and Eduardo Rodriguez, a Venezuelan native who also will not visit the White House, conversed in Spanish.
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