The Dodgers are scheduled to visit the White House to celebrate the World Series title
WASHINGTON — The Dodgers are scheduled to visit the White House on July 23 to celebrate their recent World Series title.
“President Trump is excited to welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers BACK to the White House to celebrate their World Series championship!,” White House spokesman Taylor Rogers said in a statement to The Times.
The date falls on a scheduled day off during the Dodgers’ nine-game East Coast road trip. The team will play three games in Philadelphia against the Phillies on July 20-22 before finishing the trip with a three-game series against the New York Mets on July 24-26.
The visit continues a tradition from the Dodgers’ past two World Series championships. They are hosted by President Biden in 2021 and President Trump in April 2025.
After the Dodgers secured their second straight World Series title with a dramatic Game 7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, a visit to the White House was planned, but it wasn’t until Thursday that the date was officially booked and confirmed.
Questions have been swirling about whether the players will decline to visit this year after it didn’t happen when they visited Washington in April.
Kiké Hernández said in 2018 that he wasn’t sure if he would have gone if the Dodgers had won the World Series the year before. Mookie Betts said he was undecided and needed to talk to his family when the visit was announced last year. After winning his first World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2018, Bett skipped his trip to the White House the following year during Trump’s first term.
Both players, as well as every member of the 2024 team that was with the team during its tour, participated in the tour. The only notable absence was first baseman Freddie Freeman, who remained in Los Angeles to nurse an ankle injury.
Manager Dave Roberts, who revealed in his comments to The Times in 2019 that he might not go to the White House if Trump was president, also participated in last year’s event.
Asked at a Dodgers fan event in January about the possibility of a return to the White House, Roberts told The Times’ Bill Shaikin: “To me, I stand still: I’m a baseball manager. That’s my job.”
“I was raised by a man who served our country for 30 years – to honor the highest office in our country,” said Roberts. “For me, it doesn’t matter who is in office, I will go to the White House.
Clayton Kershaw, who retired after last season but was on Team USA in this year’s World Baseball Classic, told The Times this spring that he knows Dodger fans are divided about whether the team should visit the White House again this year, but he said he’s looking forward to it.
“I left when President Biden was in power. I will go when President Trump is in power,” Kershaw said. “For me, it’s about going to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”
Times deputy sports editor Ed Guzman contributed to this report.
