Los Angeles Times Column Says Dodgers Should Decline Trump White House Invite

The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2024 World Series, securing their second title in the last five seasons after the 2020 title. Since that 2020 win came during an election year, the team made the traditional ceremonial visit to the White House under the Biden Administration. Though it's unclear if Joe Biden knew who the Dodgers were, where he was at the time, or what sport the team plays.

As the 2024 title also came in an election year, the Dodgers should now be set to visit the White House under the second Trump administration. And some opinion writers are very, very unhappy about it.

An article recently published in the Los Angeles Times made the case that the Dodgers should decline the invitation to the White House because it's coming from Donald Trump. And because Los Angeles County has a lot of Democrats in it. Seriously.

"So what should we expect the hometown World Series champs to do in 2025?" wrote Kelly Candaele and Peter Dreier. "The logical time for a Trump-Dodgers rapprochement would be in just about a month, when Los Angeles will be headed to Washington to play the Nationals starting April 7. Don’t bet on it."

"All in all, it’s hard to imagine the Dodgers agreeing to a celebratory photo op with the president right now," they continue. "Los Angeles is not just Dodger blue, but Democrat blue. The president lost L.A. County by 33 percentage points. In his feuds with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Trump has threatened to withhold fire disaster funds without concessions… The World Champion Dodgers should stand up to, not next to, the president."

All because some left-wing voters and maybe a few players can decide for the whole team, even if some players, like say, reliever Blake Treinen, would be thrilled to attend.

Blake Treinen of the Los Angeles Dodgers. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

LA Times Writers Follow Up Insane Argument With Factual Inaccuracy

Of course, these far-left writers ignore that Newsom and his political pal Karen Bass exacerbated the Los Angeles wildfires with their prolific incompetence, hubris, and stupidity. As well as that virtually every major city votes for Democrat politicians. And somehow, the sports teams from those cities still manage to visit the White House without their cities descending into mass chaos.

Don't worry though, their thesis gets even more absurd. 

They criticize Trump for using "sports as a political tool" by…attending the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500. Which is ridiculous regardless, but makes their own demand extremely hypocritical. What would the Dodgers be doing by declining a White House invitation other than making sports political? 

It's fine when it's to achieve left-wing political goals, apparently. Then they have the audacity to say that it might be "preferable that sports and politics didn't mix at all."

Do they have these same criticisms for Steve Kerr, LeBron James, Steph Curry, or other left-wing sports figures? Of course not. In fact, they celebrate Curry in the piece for declining a previous Trump invitation to the White House.

This hypocrisy and intellectual inconsistency aside, they quite literally got factual parts of the piece wrong.

They do correctly say that Mookie Betts sat out a game in protest in August 2020 because of the Jacob Blake police shooting in Wisconsin. It was a historic embarrassment based on Betts and other MLB players believing misinformation from Black Lives Matter activists and left-wing social media. But then they claim that it was due to the "police killing of another black man." Except Jacob Blake didn't die.

"In August that year, he led the team in sitting out a game to protest the police killing of another Black man, this time in Wisconsin. Manager Dave Roberts joined the protest," they wrote.

In case you were wondering how far the LA Times has fallen, it's this far. Getting factual statements wrong, out of a desire to make political points. Blake was also wanted on a warrant for third-degree felony sexual assault along with trespassing, and disorderly conduct for domestic abuse. He also had a knife, leading to the responding police officers fearing for their lives. In fact, the shooting was so justifiable that at least one of the officers involved returned to duty months later.

And again, why would Betts and Roberts' anti-reality protest be celebrated, if it were better that "sports and politics didn't mix," as they suggest?

This article is inane, absurd, factually incorrect, and overwhelmingly hypocritical. The Dodgers should accept the White House invitation, because it isn't political, it's tradition. Betts and Roberts were wrong. And of course, it's not OK for sports and politics to mix only when it benefits the left. What a mess.