Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora and several star players are opting to stay home when the team visits the White House on Thursday to be recognized for winning the World Series, and David Ortiz says he would have done the same if he were still playing.
Ortiz, who won three championships with the Red Sox and was the face of the franchise for years, spoke with WEEI’s Rob Bradford on Monday about Cora and other prominent members of the organization not wanting to shake hands with Donald Trump. When asked if he would decline along with Cora, Ortiz said “of course.”
“Alex is in a tough spot right now, going there and acting like nothing is happening. It’s like you are going to shake hands with the enemy,” Ortiz said. “Think about it, all the stuff that has been going on since he took office. People are angry. People are mad. He has divided people, that’s how it feels like.”
Cora explained over the weekend the is skipping the White House visit because he is unhappy with the way Trump has handled the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which ripped through Cora’s home country of Puerto Rico in September 2017. Ortiz said he would have passed on the trip because of Trump’s immigration policies.
“I’m an immigrant,” Ortiz said. “When it comes down to the political side of it I don’t know much about politics and things like that. But when it comes down the way immigrants have been treated it’s something that goes a long way. You don’t want to go and shake hands with a guy who is treating immigrants like (expletive) because I’m an immigrant.”
Ortiz said he doesn’t disagree with everything Trump has done but feels the president “got off on the wrong foot.” As someone who grew up in the Dominican Republic and was proud to become a United States citizen in 2008, he said it wouldn’t feel right to shake hands with Trump given everything that is going on in the country.
Some Red Sox players have offered very vague reasons for why they will not travel to Washington, D.C., but this has become a common theme for pro athletes since Trump took office.
