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David Price Won't Attend Red Sox's White House Visit: 'It's Baseball Season'
April 19, 2019
Boston Red Sox pitcher David Price reportedly will not visit the White House with his team on May 9.
Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported the news, noting the southpaw simply said, "It's baseball season" when asked about the decision. Heyman pointed out Price is far from the only one on the team who will not be celebrating 2018's World Series title at the White House; Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Rafael Devers and Hector Velazquez also said they will not be in attendance.
Velazquez is a native of Mexico and pointed to President Donald Trump's comments about his home country when explaining why he will not visit the White House, per Christopher Smith of MassLive.com.
"I made the choice not to go because, as we know, the president has said a lot of stuff about Mexico," he said. "And I have a lot of people in Mexico that are fans of me, that follow me. And I'm from there. So I would rather not offend anyone over there."
David Jackson of USA Today reported in 2016 that Trump revealed during a deposition he planned on characterizing some Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals when announcing his intention to run for president.
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," he said during his June 2015 announcement speech, per Jackson. "They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Liz Roscher of Yahoo Sports noted Red Sox manager Alex Cora has not publicly revealed if he will attend and had previously pointed to Trump's treatment of his native Puerto Rico as one reason he was undecided.
Whether sports champions would visit the White House or not has been a constant theme during Trump's presidency.
He tweeted in 2017 that Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry's invitation was withdrawn, which prompted LeBron James to call him a "bum":
Trump also canceled the Philadelphia Eagles' visit following their Super Bowl win after it became clear only a small number of players would attend.