Last Friday, the news broke that Mookie Betts and Dodgers Manager Dave “Doc” Roberts would visit the White House on Monday to attend the White House celebration for the Dodgers 2024 World Series championship. Betts, who refused to participate in the White House celebration in 2019, said the following, “It’s not a political stance that I’m taking … I know no matter what I say, what I do, people are going to take it as political, but that’s definitely not what it is. This is about an accomplishment that the Dodgers were able to accomplish last year.”
Betts had more to say, “Being Black in America in a situation like this, it’s a tough spot to be in. No matter what I choose, somebody’s going to be pissed. Somebody’s going to have an opinion.
“I told them I needed to think about it. Nobody else in this clubhouse has to go through a decision like this, except me.”
When I read his comments, my heart sank into the pit of my stomach. My emotions ran the gamut from anger to, sorrow to, sympathy, and finally despair.
I’ll start with my first reaction: anger. I was angry at Mookie Betts. I was angry at Doc Roberts too, but I was furious with Betts. Why was I angry? I was angry because I felt that by attending, Betts was capitulating to the Trump era and all that entails. And worse, I felt Betts was changing his values to avoid the gaze of this hostile and vindictive administration. This is coming fresh off the news that Major League Baseball itself had removed all references to its highly praised and effective diversity programs from its website in order to avoid the wrath of the Trump White House. I was angry because while Mookie Betts is not Jackie Robinson or Muhammad Ali, I know he understands the weight of his decisions. When the lights were the brightest, I expected that he would stand on the side of his values, or at least the ones he once held.
My understanding of Betts’ comments is that he was conflicted but ultimately decided to stand with his teammates because they supported him through a difficult playoff season, and he didn’t want to make the story about him. He even went on to call his actions selfish in 2019. “I made it about me,” Betts said of not visiting the White House during Trump’s first term. “This is not about me. This is about the Dodgers …me not being there for them at that time, it was very selfish.”
Here is where I agree with Betts: It’s not about him.
While some people – primarily conservative media – would have made it about him, he could have made it about so much more. He could have made it about the people who are under assault by this administration – a lot of them look like Mookie Betts. He could have made it about the elimination of diversity and inclusion initiatives in education and business – a lot of those programs directly affect overly qualified Black people. He could have made it about the slashing of the federal workforce, roughly 18% of whom are Black Americans. I could go on, but I think you understand. If Betts had refused to attend the White House, it would have spun in every way possible, but I was angry because I felt he caved. He caved because he simply didn’t want the smoke.
After anger, my emotion turned to sorrow.
After I started processing Betts’ decision, I felt a strong feeling of loss. I realized how far away we truly are from a Jackie Robinson in modern baseball. If you had asked me who was the closest active baseball player to the civil rights heroes of Jackie’s era, there is no doubt Betts’ name would have come up. After all, he is the guy who refused to go to the White House in 2019 and wore a t-shirt during All-Star weekend in Los Angeles (2022) that said, “We need more Black people at the Stadium.” Mookie Betts was that guy.
Betts is an All-Star on the field and can clearly articulate his feelings about equality and civil rights off the field. In baseball, he is the closest thing we have to those heroes of old. And with this decision, I feel we’ve lost that North Star. To be fair, Jackie Robinson’s political career took many turns, and he made decisions he would regret, most notably testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) against Paul Robeson. No human is perfect, but my sorrow comes from an understanding that baseball may be further away from a principled stance on Civil Rights than in the fifties and sixties, especially among active players.
After sorrow, I felt sympathy.
Mookie Betts is on an island of his own. He is the only American-born Black player on the 2025 Dodgers roster. The weight that he must feel with every decision is unfathomable. And for that I have great sympathy for Betts. If Betts had five or six African Americans teammates, he could breathe easier and freely make decisions like this one. That simply is not the case. That is one of the many reasons why there needs to be more Black American players playing baseball at the highest level and more representation with MLB front offices to provide more unity for players like Betts.
While I disagree with Betts’ and Roberts’ decision to attend the White House, I realize I am not in their shoes or their locker room. Successful baseball teams have a chemistry that requires unity, especially among their star players. Betts causing a riff among his teammates for something that the White House and conservative media would no doubt paint as selfish does have the potential to distract the Dodgers from their current goal of winning another championship.
Let me be clear, I’m a Mookie Betts fan. While disappointed in his decision to visit the White House, I’m still a Betts fan. Do I have dreams that Betts takes all of his Dodgers teammates to the National Museum of African American History and Culture? Yes, I do. I’d be interested in learning if his white teammates considered his feelings, as he has clearly done for them. It’s also clear to me that Betts is making the easier decision. It’s a decision that I don’t think Jackie would have made at this time. And for that, I’m sad. But until there is safety, an increase in Black players and management, and more unity among Black people in baseball, this is the posture that the game is in. We have a long way to go. Let’s continue the fight.
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” – Frederick Douglass
