Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo is loving life right now. After his team beat the Houston Astros in the World Series, it has been nothing but parties, parades and love from the fans. However, when they visited the White House last week, there was a lot of backlash towards the team specifically when catcher Kurt Suzuki wore a “Make American Great Again” hat which led to a hug from President Donald Trump. When Rizzo was asked about the White House visit by USA Today, he made it clear that they were just there to have some fun and nothing else.
“We weren’t trying to make a political statement, whatsoever,” Rizzo said. “We just thought that the honor and the tradition of champions being invited to the White House and the office of the president, and especially us being the hometown team in their backyard two miles away from the capital, is something that should be done.
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“Obviously, each player could make their own decision whether they wanted to attend, but most of the players were excited by it.”
Rizzo, who has been with the Nationals since 2007, went on to say he’s not political in any way shape or form. He told USA Today, “You’re in a situation where you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” Rizzo said. “I don’t have a political bone in my body. I vote for who I want. I don’t care what the party is. I vote every election. I’m listed as an Independent. My dad was a city worker in the city of Chicago for 45 years. We voted Democrat for the [Richard] Daleys a lot. I voted Republican sometimes.”
Suzuki was asked about the hat and he said he wasn’t trying to make a political statement, and he was just having some fun.
“It was amazing. That was the president. Just trying to have some fun,” Suzuki said to USA Today in a text message. “Everybody makes everything political. It was about our team winning the World Series.”
It sounds like the Nationals wanted to visit the White House because who knows when the opportunity will come up again. And based on the way the 2019 season started for them with a 19-31 record, it looked like they weren’t going to make the playoffs at all. So the Nationals will continue to celebrate until it’s time to get back to work.
