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Red Sox ALCS MVP Announces He Won't Be Visiting White House

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The Boston Red Sox are set to visit the White House in May, but one of their star players won’t be making the trip.

Center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr., who won a Gold Glove award and was named the AL Championship Series MVP last season, said he won’t be attending the ceremony with his teammates.

“I don’t get into politics,” Bradley told The Boston Globe. “But I won’t be going.”

He becomes the third Red Sox player to say he won’t be visiting President Donald Trump at the White House with the rest of the team.

AL MVP Mookie Betts and Rafael Devers also said they won’t be attending.

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Pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez said he is unlikely to make the trip, while many others are still undecided.

The Red Sox postponed their planned visit to the White House because of the partial government shutdown. They were originally going to visit on Feb. 15, which was just three days before their first full workout of spring training.

They will now visit in early May, which coincides with the team’s series in Baltimore vs. the Orioles. That is the team’s closest road trip to Washington this season as it doesn’t face the Nationals.

Bradley was on the 2013 Boston Red Sox team that also won the World Series. He wasn’t part of the postseason roster that year, but he still received a ring and did visit the White House and meet President Barack Obama the following year.

Bradley also visited the Obama White House twice when he was in college. His South Carolina Gamecocks team won the College World Series in 2010 and 2011, and he accompanied the team to D.C. both times.

While Bradley won’t be visiting the White House again this time around, he recently made a trip to Atlanta to take in the Super Bowl.

But even though he is a Boston athlete, Bradley wasn’t rooting for the “home” team in the New England Patriots and instead was there as a Los Angeles Rams fan.

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“I’ve always liked (the Rams) from back in the late 1990s, early 2000s,” Bradley told Masslive.com back in 2016. “2000 was actually when they won their Super Bowl (over the) Tennessee Titans.”

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Bradley will be entering the last year of his contract with the Red Sox before becoming arbitration eligible in 2020.

He and the Red Sox avoided arbitration this season when he agreed to an $8.55 million contract after he made $6.1 million last season.

Bradley hit .234 in 2018 with 13 home runs and a career-high 17 stolen bases. He also led all AL centerfielders in outfield assists for the third time in his career.

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Ross Kelly has been a sportswriter since 2009.
Ross Kelly has been a sportswriter since 2009 and previously worked for ESPN, CBS and STATS Inc. A native of Louisiana, Ross now resides in Houston.
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