When it was learned that the Dodgers planned to visit President Trump in the White House to commemorate the victory of the World Series last year, they quickly complain about the
Who in the main office or in the Casa Club thought that it was intelligent to celebrate the incredible 2024 Dodgers race, promoted by local and international talent that resembles the city in its logo, with someone who lost the county of the suede Kamala Harris for almost 33 points?
Why would the blue team want the redst member of the red army of this country?
How could the team of Jackie Robinson and Jaime Jarrín, with nights of appreciation this season for seven ethnic groups, the LGBTQ+ community and Labor Trade Unions: Do you possibly want to have something to do with a boss commander who has declared all the things of Verboten and wants to gut labor rights?
The calls immediately arrived so that the Dodgers follow the leadership of champions such as the Golden State Warriors and Philadelphia Eagles, who boycotted the White House during Trump's first mandate as a rebuke of everything he represents.
One of those voices was my time partner columnist Dylan Hernández, who wrote last week that if the Dodgers follow the invitation, “they will incline the knee to hatred forces similar to those that challenged when breaking the color barrier of their sport.”
But appearing does not necessarily mean leaning.
Boicots are a traditional tradition in sports. In 2020, the Milwaukee Bucks refused to play to protest the police shooting of a black man in Wisconsin, which led to similar actions of teams throughout the NBA, Major League Soccer, Baseball and the WNBA. University athletes have left practices to protest racism on campus. Countries renounce the Olympic Games for political reasons all the time.
But the most powerful and better remembered political protests of the athletes are when they take their actions, well, where the action is. Think of Tommie Smith and John Carlos on a silence, the fists without engagles and flushed rose in a black power greeting, during the 200 -meter medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympic Games. The Campal Marshal of the San Francisco 49ers, Colin Kaepernick, kneeling during the 2016 season, while the national anthem played. career. The heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali criticizes Vietnam's war and anti-black racism at the best time of his career.
Those athletes brought dissent where he should be heard: in front of power, during their brightest moments, at risk for their livelihoods. And the story has acquitted them all.
The Marshal of Campo de los Tigres, Joe Burrow, gives President Trump a team's shirt, since they participate in an event in honor of the National University Football Champions 2019, the Tigers of the State University of Louisiana, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, in 2020.
(Mandel Ngan/AFP through Getty Images)
White house visits to championship teams are a silly, quickly forgotten. But now they are a tradition of US sports, so I understand why the president of the Dodgers, Stan Kastten, tried to justify Hernández's decision: “It is what is what [the players] Everyone comes to associate with being world champions. They all wanted to go, and we did so. “
But for him to insist, as Hernández did, that there is nothing political about it is as ridiculous as the proposal of Dodger Stadium gondola. That is why the team should not only go through the White House on Monday, but must do it with the weight of the angels in their minds.
I do not hope that Dodgers attack Trump and their policies, which have been a giant middle finger for California and everything it represents. But just being there can be a powerful reprimand, if they possess it.
They should take the property of Billie Jean King, the legend of tennis that fought against machismo in sports and was one of the first LGBTQ athletes to leave publicly. Let Miguel Rojas, born in Venezuela, support Trump so that Internet can point out that the president wants to end deportation protections for 600,000 of his compatriots.
Make Shohei Ohtani, the MVP of the reigning national league and the best baseball player in the world, shake Trump's hand to allow the headlines to flourish on Trump's 24% rates in Japan. What, the next president will take strong measures against foreign athletes in the name of promoting American talent?
Everyone should use No. 42 Jerseys in honor of Robinson, who broke the baseball color line and also fought against segregation in the army. Initially, the Department of Defense withdrew an article on its website on Robinson's military service, and its refusal to move to the rear of an army bus, until they face a furious rejection of all with a sense of decency.
All those gestures are simple and feasible and speak a lot. Sometimes, just appear and not hide who you are is how to fight better.
Trump opponents cannot shout in a vacuum, or among them, and think it is sufficient resistance. They should not give up the traditions of this country, such as the flag, the White House and democracy, to a tyrant like Trump just because he has wrapped in them.
Going to the White House does not normalize Trump: it is a reminder that the place is ours, not yours.
In addition, it should not exclude Trump from our lives, especially while in power. You need to be treated in any way possible, and that includes knowing it in person.
That is why when Trump visited the remains of the Palisades fire earlier this year, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, and the Los Angeles County supervisor, Kathryn Barger, sat with him at a round table, remembering the president in front of the press what he is about and challenging him to help him.
Dodgers can't think that simply posing for photos and deliver to Trump a commemorative shirt qualifies as a well -dedicated time. Or maybe everything is an illusion on my part. In spite of all the hype of being there for fans and reflecting at all times, Dodgers has historically cared for one thing: the Dodgers.
So, my last argument for the team to do something significant with their visit does everything about them.
Boys: All were pioneers in the type of globalism and multiculturalism that Trump hates, which now exemplifies and continues to drive the best franchise in baseball. It is time to stay on the Dodger road at the time it matters most.
