Astros weigh in on potential White House visit
As the Astros prepared to parade through the streets of Houston on Friday to celebrate the franchise's first-ever World Series title, manager A.J. Hinch wouldn't definitively say whether his team would accept a potential invitation to the White House.
"We just won the first world championship in Houston Astros history," Hinch told the Associated Press. "We're also in one of the most divided countries, polarizing countries in politics. I don't know that this is the best stage for everybody to declare one way or the other and try to comment on the moment and be too much of a political statement."
Several of his players, however, had no such reservations about expressing their willingness to visit with President Donald Trump, who's hosted several championship teams at the White House since assuming office but famously uninvited the Golden State Warriors in September because Steph Curry hesitated to accept his offer. (At the time, the Warriors had yet to actually receive a formal invitation to the White House).
"I'm going to go," Dallas Keuchel, a two-time All-Star and former American League Cy Young Award winner, told Hunter Atkins of the Houston Chronicle.
Meanwhile, George Springer, who was named World Series MVP after going 11-for-29 (.379) with five home runs - tying a Fall Classic record - in his club's showdown with the Los Angeles Dodgers, said he wouldn't sit out the visit if the team collectively decided to go.
"If the team goes I'm going," Springer told the Associated Press. "I'm not going to say no. I understand the impact of it. ... I understand the stuff that's been happening. Yes there are things that have to change but there are always things that have to change. There isn't anything that is ever going to be perfect. If the team goes I'll go."
Alex Bregman, the 23-year-old third baseman who tweeted in October that Trump "is a joke," said he would defer to the judgment of two of his more veteran teammates with respect to the decision.
"How do I feel about it? Umm. I don't know," Bregman told Atkins. "I'm gonna do whatever Carlos Beltran and Carlos Correa do."