Nationals Visit Donald Trump, White House After 2019 World Series Win

The Washington Nationals visited President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday to celebrate their World Series title. They were greeted on the lawn with a live rendition of "Baby Shark," the children's song that became the team's unofficial anthem after Gerardo Parra began using it as his walk-up music in June.

The song became the Nats' good-luck charm, so it's fitting that it was the prelude to Trump's address to the team Monday.

"It became the anthem for Nats fans everywhere," the president said of the song. "And I'll tell you what, that became a very, very powerful tune."

Having the United States Marine Band play a children's song on the White House lawn served as the perfect backdrop for the bizarre incongruence that has descended upon Washington, D.C. The city is experiencing both the elation of celebrating a World Series title and the governmental combativeness that accompanied impeachment proceedings' being brought against Trump by the House of Representatives.

It was no surprise that Trump—booed by Nationals fans less than a week ago—slipped in a crack about impeachment while speaking about the team's run to a title.

"America fell in love with the Nats baseball, they just fell in love with Nats baseball," he said. "That's all they wanted to talk about—that and impeachment."

After the seven-game World Series defeat of the Houston Astros, several Nationals players chose not to attend the White House ceremony.

Anthony Rendon, Javy Guerra, Joe Ross, Wander Suero, Wilmer Difo, Michael A. Taylor, Victor Robles, Roenis Elias, Sean Doolittle, Raudy Read and Tres Barrera did not take part. Doolittle elaborated on his decision.

"There's a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country," he told Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post.

Catcher Kurt Suzuki, meanwhile, donned a red hat with Trump's political slogan "Make America Great Again" before he addressed the crowd on the White House lawn.

The concept of "Stick to Sports," often hurled at athletes and sports media when they speak on topics outside their professions, is more outdated than ever. Sports and politics have always blurred together, and a celebration of the Nationals' World Series victory over the Astros is no exception.

Ace Stephen Strasburg has reportedly opted out of his contract after going 5-0 with a 1.98 ERA and 47 strikeouts in five postseason starts. When he finished his turn at the microphone, some in the crowd began chanting: "Four more years! Four more years!"

It wasn't hard to see the subtext in the chant. Trump, after all, will be up for reelection in a year.

Some spoke on the usual narratives of how sports bring people together. The Nats' title "unified a region when a region needed unifying the most," general manager Mike Rizzo said.

"You guys got after it," he continued. "Not a baseball town? Not even close. Huge baseball town. What a great fanbase we had, the playoffs, the latter part of the season and the playoffs, you guys were electric. It was unbelievable."

The day wasn't without levity. Rizzo decried the controversial interference call on Trea Turner:

Trump joked, "As soon as they lose the first two or three games, they're not gonna be heroes anymore, that's the way life works," adding, "but that won't happen to them."

The Nationals started the season 19-31. They lost superstar Bryce Harper in the offseason—have any of their fans mentioned that lately?—and weren't considered a World Series favorite. Even when they got red-hot behind the brilliant pitching of Max Scherzer and Strasburg, they still had to face the mighty Astros, who won the most games in baseball this year and were the presumed front-runners.

In many ways, then, the White House ceremony was a celebration of resilience, camaraderie and the underdog spirit—the story of a compelling baseball team that got hot at the perfect moment and finally gave a city the baseball title it had craved.

But there was also "Baby Shark." There was the mention of impeachment. There was the noticeable absence of some of the team's key players and the bright red symbol on Suzuki's head. This is what winning looks like in 2019.