World Series champion Dodgers visit the White House
WASHINGTON — Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers visited the White House after winning the World Series last season.
Ohtani was praised for becoming baseball's first 50 home run-50 stolen base player, Betts for his play, and Japanese pitcher Yoshi Yamamoto and NL Championship Series MVP Tommy Edman were singled out.
Betts, the star outfielder at the time for the 2018 champion Boston Red Sox, did not make that team's trip to the White House the next year. Betts was on the Dodgers when they won the World Series in 2020 and attended the celebration the following year.
The 32-year-old Betts is the lone Black player on the Dodgers who returned from last season's World Series team.
'Nobody else in this clubhouse has to go through a decision like this except me,' Betts said of his decision. 'That's what makes it tough. But it is what it is. I'm not trying to make this political by any means at all. All it is is just me being with my team to celebrate something. It's a privilege to get an invitation like this. I just want to be there with them.'
Manager Dave Roberts had called the invitation a huge honor that each World Series champion gets to experience. Roberts said deciding to go to the White House was not a formal conversation he and players had.
The trip came after a Department of Defense webpage describing Brooklyn Dodgers great and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson's military service was restored after it had come down.
That development came after pages honoring a Black Medal of Honor winner and Japanese American service members were taken down — which the Pentagon said was a mistake — amid the department's effort to remove content singling out the contributions by women and minority groups.
Neither Robinson nor any other previous Dodgers greats were mentioned at the ceremony.
Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter and pitcher Clayton Kershaw gave brief remarks at the White House.
The White House also said recently the NFL's Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles accepted their invitation for April 28.
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Chicago Tribune
42 minutes ago
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'With endorsements, it's completely supplemented my lifestyle and being able to not go overseas and with the current CBA, being able to still sustain for the other six months when we're not receiving a check,' Carrington told The News. 'It's really important to build your brand as a person.' Wings forward Maddy Siegrist, who is signed to Puma and credits her agent for much of her sponsorship success, inked NIL deals when she starred at Villanova from 2018-23 and has also landed partnerships since the Wings drafted her in 2020. 'You get a lot of opportunities as a professional,' she told The News. 'I think you have a little more freedom in your offseasons to do more things as well, but obviously everyone's journey is different.' Earlier this year, Bueckers landed a GQ cover and the Chicago Sky's Angel Reese was featured on Vogue. The Sky's Hailey Van Lith and the Los Angeles Sparks' Cameron Brink appeared in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition. Caitlin Clark, Time's Athlete of the Year in 2024, signed a $28 million Nike deal shortly after turning pro. Their lives don't represent the reality of most athletes in the WNBA. 'There's not necessarily equal opportunity in marketing and branding depending on your following and your global image,' Bueckers, who has 2.6 million Instagram followers, told Already one of the biggest draws in the WNBA, Bueckers said she wants to use her opportunities to help others who don't have the same visibility. Bueckers also took this approach at UConn, where she included her teammates in NIL deals and used her influence to create pathways for minority content creators and advertisers. As conversations about pay equity continue and Bueckers lifts the Wings to new heights, expect the superstar to uplift her teammates in Dallas, too. 'When I met with the agency, I told them my values. I talked about giving back, using the partnerships to do something bigger than myself. It's really important for me to involve as many teammates as I can,' Bueckers told 'It's not just something that's transactional to where [sponsors are] just getting something out of me and I'm getting something out of them, but how can we get something out of trying to make this world a better place within our partnership?'
