'Disappointed' Houston Astros team leader goes rogue on champions' White House visit
When the reigning World Series champion Houston Astros announced a team decision to attend the White House for the traditional champions’ visit, it was lauded as a respectful move that kept politics separate from sports.
“This is a tradition and an honor,” Reid Ryan, the Astros’ president of business operations, told the Houston Chronicle. “For many people, this might be their only time to ever be invited to the White House.”
Ryan also stressed the responsibility he felt about representing baseball.
“As the representatives of baseball and the World Series champs, when the White House calls and invites you to come up, it’s something that as an organization we felt both a responsibility and an obligation to be part of,” he added.
Some Astros players seemed genuinely excited about going to the White House, despite some of the natural divisiveness of politics and the strong opinions on President Donald Trump.
“That’s the most historic place in our country, it stands for a lot, it means a lot to a lot of people,” said George Springer. “It means a lot to a lot of people. If the team goes, I’m going. I’m not going to say no. I understand the impact of it. … I understand the stuff that’s been happening. Yes there are things that have to change but there are always things that have to change. There isn’t anything that is ever going to be perfect. If the team goes, I’ll go.”
Rising Astros youngster Alex Bregman, only 23, said that he’d follow the lead of some of the teams’ veterans.
“I’m going to do whatever Carlos Beltran and Carlos Correa do,” Bregman said.
Now, however, Bregman’s status could be up in the air because one team leader won’t be attending the White House visit.
Recent retiree Carlos Beltran, 40, told reporters on Tuesday that he would not visit the White House per the New York Daily News.
“No, I’m not gonna go. Honestly, I’m not going. I’m going to stay with my family,” Beltran said. “I’m going to be here in New York City.”
Beltran initially tried to make his decision seem completely apolitical.
“[Trump] is the president of the United States,” Beltran said. “If sometimes we don’t like the things that he does, or we like the things that he does, at the end of the day, he’s the president, so [it] has nothing to do with that. Honestly, I’m not into politics. I’m more into the baseball side of it, sports side of it. That’s something that I don’t have a lot of opinion on that.”
However, Beltran also stressed how “disappointed” he was in Trump and the aid the American government had provided to Puerto Rico after the ravaging effects of Hurricane Maria.
“There’s no doubt that I’m disappointed,” Beltran said regarding the government’s response to the island where he was born. “I’m not the only one. There’s a lot of people disappointed. We haven’t [gotten] some benefits. Being part of the United States, you expect to at least get the same benefits when tragedies like this happen. The fact that we haven’t [gotten] those, yeah, it’s a disappointment.”
Beltran retired shortly after he and the Astros won their first World Series titles in November.
The Astros beat a talented Los Angeles Dodgers team in a thrilling seven-game series.
Beltran recently interviewed for the position of manager with the New York Yankees, but the club ultimately decided on Aaron Boone.
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