PHILADELPHIA — Mookie Betts will take part in the Dodgers’ White House visit on Monday.
“I’m going to go,” he said Friday. “It’s not a political stance that I’m taking. I know no matter what I say and what I do people will take it as political. But that’s definitely not what it is. This is about an accomplishment that the Dodgers were able to accomplish last year.”
Betts did not visit the White House with the Boston Red Sox in 2019. He was not alone. Manager Alex Cora as well as players David Price, Jackie Bradley Jr., Rafael Devers, Hector Velazquez, Xander Bogaerts, Sandy Leon and Christian Vazquez declined to meet with President Donald Trump.
When the Dodgers visited the White House during Joe Biden’s term in 2021, Betts attended.
“I regret that because I made it about me,” Betts said of his decision in 2019. “This isn’t about me. I don’t want anything to be about me. I want it to be about the Dodgers because these boys were with me in the dark times when all this stuff was coming out in the playoffs about I was 0 for 20, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that. These boys rallied around me, to help me so much through the playoffs last year and just my well-being as a person.
“So for me to be able to look in the mirror at night and for me to be happy with the person I’m looking at, I need to be there with my boys to celebrate this accomplishment. All the fight, all that we did last year, that was hard and I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror if I wasn’t there with them.”
Betts, 32, said “the world was a different place” when he opted not to attend in 2019.
“I’m not the same person,” he said. “I should – I can’t say what I should or shouldn’t have done. I made a decision at the time. It is what it is. Me not being there for them at the time was very selfish and I will not make that mistake again.”
Earlier this spring, Betts said he wasn’t sure whether he would go or not and that he had to think about his decision. The fact that he hadn’t gone in 2019 and his status as a prominent African-American athlete (the only African-American on the Dodgers’ current roster) made Betts’ decision a point of interest.
“Yeah, I mean, it kind of is what it is. It comes with the territory,” Betts said. “Being black in America in a situation like this is a tough spot to be in. No matter what I choose, somebody is going to be pissed, somebody is going to have their own opinion.
“But again, this is not about me. This is not about politics. This is about the Dodgers. This is about my loyalty to these boys in this clubhouse. That’s all it is for me.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he did not talk to Betts about his decision but he is “happy to have Mookie on board.”
Roberts said he expects “100 percent participation” from everyone in the Dodgers’ traveling party on Monday. First baseman Freddie Freeman was placed on the injured list on Thursday, did not travel with the team to Philadelphia and is not expected to be in Washington.
“I think that we sort of left it to each individual,” Roberts said. “But as an organization, I do think it’s good that we have full representation. And it wasn’t about putting pressure on any particular person. We still feel it’s a baseball thing for us. It’s tradition. And we’re doing it unified. So I’m excited about that.”
More to come on this story.
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