Dodgers deserve to enjoy White House visit like other championship teams
The Sporting Tribune's Arash Markazi writes the Dodgers deserve the ability to enjoy a visit to the White House like previous championship-winning teams, regardless of your political viewpoints.
Good morning and welcome to The Morning Column at The Sporting Tribune. It’s the first of our weekday 6@6 series, where you can catch The Morning Column, Arash Markazi’s daily notebook, at 6 a.m. PT, and then watch and listen to The Sporting Tribune Today at 6 p.m. PT on X. The show, which is hosted by Arash Markazi and Grant Mona, will hit on the top stories of the day and will also air on KIRN 670 AM in Southern California, 98.5 The Bet in Las Vegas and The Hawaii Sports Radio Network 95.1 FM and 760 AM in Hawaii.
LOS ANGELES – Six thoughts for Wednesday:
1. The Dodgers announced Tuesday they had accepted an invitation from the President of the United States to visit the White House to celebrate winning the World Series last season.
The team will visit the White House on April 7 and will also visit Capitol Hill on April 8 during their trip to Washington, D.C. to play the Washington Nationals.
Normally such a trip – a decades-long tradition for professional and college teams – wouldn’t be newsworthy but when the invitation comes from President Donald Trump, well, it’s a little different. Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts had previously said he wouldn’t visit the White House while Trump was in office and Mookie Betts didn’t go when the Boston Red Sox visited Trump in the White House after winning the World Series in 2018.
Roberts said he would be going to the White House next month while Betts was undecided and said he would discuss the invitation with his family this week.
“It’s certainly a huge honor to get the invitation to the White House,” Roberts told the media on Tuesday. “It allows us to celebrate our 2024 championship. To my understanding, every World Series champion gets that honor. I respect the position. It’s the highest office in our country certainly, in the world. So, I’m looking forward to it.”
The viewpoint from Dodgers fans were as divided as the voter turnout in California judging from the comments following the Dodgers’ post on X announcing the decision to go to the White House.
In keeping with long-standing baseball tradition, President Trump has invited the 2024 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers to the White House when they play in Washington D.C. on April 7. The Dodgers look forward to visiting the White House and celebrating our title.
In…— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 25, 2025
I understand both sides of the argument but the Dodgers’ players, coaches and staff who won the World Series in October over the New York Yankees earned this invitation and with it earned the right to accept it or deny it. There will likely be some players that chose not to attend, which is their right, and there will likely be many more that choose to attend, which, again, is their right.
I assure you, whether or not Betts or Freddie Freeman or Shohei Ohtani or anyone decides to go or not to the White House is not going to change how the Trump admiration does their job. For many players, coaches and staff, this invitation and moment is a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit the White House. Even if you don’t support Trump, you can still take advantage of this time in your life and share the experience with your family for years to come. There's no guarantee they will ever get this chance again, regardless of who's in office.
I was lucky enough to be invited to the White House when Barack Obama was in office and was able to walk around the Vermeil Room, check out the books in the Library, sit in the China Room, grab a drink in the Blue Room, relax in the Red Room and take photos in the Green Room, before eating lunch in the State Dining Room. Whenever I show people pictures of my unforgettable day at the White House, who was the sitting president at the time isn’t a big part of the story. It’s an experience I cherish and didn’t take for granted. It’s also one the Dodgers deserve to enjoy if they choose to accept the president’s invitation.
2. It was great to see Mookie Betts smiling and back in the Dodgers' lineup on Tuesday. It didn’t matter that he went 0-for-3 in the Dodgers’ final exhibition game against the Angels. That was meaningless in every sense of the word. The fact that he was healthy again is the best news the Dodgers have gotten since they returned from Japan.
There was serious concern about his health to start the season after he had been battling a mysterious stomach virus that caused him to lose nearly 20 pounds in two weeks. But Betts turned a corner on Monday, responding well to medication from doctors, felt well enough to play on Tuesday and has been cleared to play in the Dodges’ home opener on Thursday against the Detroit Tigers. “I feel great,” Betts told reporters. “Awesome. Normal.”
3. The best team in Los Angeles this month has been the Los Angeles Kings. They have won nine of their last 10 games and currently have the longest single season home point streak at 15 games in franchise history, going 12-0-3 during that stretch. They’ve also outscored their opponents 34-15 during this run thanks in large part to back-to-back 7-2 wins at home over the Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins. It’s the first time the Kings have scored at least seven goals in back-to-back games in 30 years.
They’re certainly looking like a dark horse Stanley Cup team no one wants to face come playoff time. They’re in sole possession of second place in the Pacific Division and just five points behind first place Vegas with a game in hand. They’re also currently fifth in the West but just five points behind the second seed. If you’re a fan of the Lakers and Kings, your teams are in very similar positions with very similar goals heading into the stretch run of the season.
4. Bronny James will never get a fair shake at being an NBA player because of who is father is. The fact is most people think the only reason Bronny is in the NBA is because his father is LeBron James. That might have been the common belief when the Lakers drafted him at the end of the second-round last year with one of the last picks in the draft but anyone who has watched him play recently knows that is simply not the case. He deserves to be in the NBA.
A few days after posting 17 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 1 block on 70-percent shooting against the Milwaukee Bucks, Bronny scored a career-high 39 points in the South Bay Lakers' G League win over the Santa Cruz Warriors. He hit 14-of-21 shots from the field, including 4-for-8 on 3-pointers, and added seven rebounds, four assists, four steals and one block.
At just 20 years old, Bronny is the youngest player in the G League to average at least 22 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per game. No one is saying he is the second coming of his father but he’s much better than most late second round picks and looks like he could be a solid NBA player if he continues to develop the way he has during the course of his rookie season.
5. WrestleMania Week will look a lot like Super Bowl Week in Las Vegas.
Medium Rare, the group that puts on some of the biggest Super Bowl parties each year such as Shaq’s Fun House, Gronk Beach. SI The Party and Guy’s Flavortown Tailgate, announced they are partnering with WWE to roll out a similar lineup of parties around WrestleMania next month.
The parties will take place each night from Thursday, April 17 through Sunday, April 20 at LIV and LIV Beach at Fontainebleau Las Vegas, which is the official host hotel of WrestleMania. "WrestleMania After Dark" will feature musical performances, appearances by top WWE Superstars, and interactive activations.
6. I wrote in yesterday’s column how distraught and heartbroken I was about JuJu Watkins tearing her ACL on Monday and being sidelined for the year. The worry with an injury like that isn’t just for the short-term but also the long-term. Will she be the same player she was before when she comes back? The answer from a friend and doctor was short and sweet and gave me some hope.
“She will be even better.”
My friend mentioned the advancements that have been made with ACL surgery, the best-in-class care and treatment she is getting and sent me this video of UConn star Paige Bueckers, who tore her ACL in 2022 and returned better than before and will be the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s WNBA Draft