Nationals World Series Champion Doolittle Declines White House Invite, 'I Just Can't Do It
Washington D.C. is abuzz after the hometown Washington Nationals won their first Major League Baseball World Series this week.
The victory brought Republicans and Democrats together in a celebration that erased the divisions of politics, or so it seemed.
But it appears there has to be one activist player on every team and this time it is known liberal reliever Sean Doolittle.
The star reliever, known for his opposition to the administration of President Donald trump, said he will not be with his team during the White House visit.
“There’s a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country,” he said to The Washington Post.
“My wife and I stand for inclusion and acceptance, and we’ve done work with refugees, people that come from, you know, the ‘shithole countries,’” he said.
“At the end of the day, as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my teammates, I can’t do it,” he said. “I just can’t do it.”
“I feel very strongly about his issues on race relations,” he said, and he said that his wife has two mothers who are active in LGBTQ issues.
“I want to show support for them. I think that’s an important part of allyship, and I don’t want to turn my back on them,” he said.
“I have a brother-in-law who has autism, and [Trump] is a guy that mocked a disabled reporter,” the reliever said.
“How would I explain that to him that I hung out with somebody who mocked the way that he talked, or the way that he moves his hands? I can’t get past that stuff,” he said.
He had deleted Twitter from his phone as his team played in the playoffs on the road to the World Series but he has it back and sees people attacking him for his decision.
“People say you should go because it’s about respecting the office of the president,” he said in the interview.
“And I think over the course of his time in office he’s done a lot of things that maybe don’t respect the office.”
“The rhetoric, time and time again, has enabled those kind of behaviors,” he said as he mentioned white supremacy and race issues.
“That never really went away, but it feels like now people with those beliefs, they maybe feel a little bit more empowered.
“They feel like they have a path, maybe. I don’t want to hang out with somebody who talks like that,” the reliever said.
“I don’t want to get mad online, as they say,” the reliever said. “I want people to know that I put thought into this and, at the end of the day, I just can’t go.”
