When a championship team’s top officials have drastically split political allegiances, what’s an -organization to do when the president calls after the most fractious election in generations?
“Once you’re invited, you go,” said politically conservative chairman Tom Ricketts, whose brother and co-owner Todd -Ricketts has been selected to join president-elect Trump’s -commerce department.
“There’s no big conspiracy here,” said team president Theo Epstein, a Hillary Clinton supporter who -attended President Obama’s farewell speech in Chicago.
Despite how long it seemed to take the Cubs to accept the months-old invitation to visit the White House on Monday, Epstein said he would have had no problem attending the celebration at a Trump White House later in the year.
“Uhhh, if the whole team was going I probably would have gone,” he said, smiling. “I’m not going to tell you what I would have been wearing, but I would have gone.”
With few exceptions (pitcher Jake Arrieta, who had to return home to deal with a family health issue), the Cubs seem unified in their consensus “excitement” over Monday’s visit — and subsequent trip Monday to the nearby Walter Reed military hospital.
The attendees are expected to include retired catcher David Ross and Cub-turned-Cardinal free agent Dexter Fowler.
“It’s going to be amazing,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “It’s something as a kid [you dream of]. Every championship team gets to go to the White House and meet the president, and we get to go meet a president who’s from Chicago who’s the 44th president. Hopefully, I can somehow give him a jersey with [Rizzo’s No.] 44 on it.”
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Email: gwittenmyer@suntimes.com
