LA Times reporter calls Dodgers "tone deaf" and an "insult to their fans" for accepting White House invitation
For many liberal sports reporters, who make up the vast majority of sports media, unfortunately, the worst thing a championship team can do is visit the Trump White House.
On Thursday, LA times long-time reporter, Bill Plaschke, called the Los Angeles Dodgers "tone deaf," and considered them accepting the invitation to the White House to celebrate their World Series championship, "an insult to their fans."
From the outset of this virtue signaling piece, Plaschke paints accepting the invitation as an insult to the Dodgers' largely Hispanic fan base.
"… why in the hell do they insist on embracing the person trying to tear this city apart?"
No, he’s not talking about Karren Bass. No, he’s not talking about Gavin Newsom. He’s claiming that President Trump is the one responsible for the list of issues that the city of Los Angeles faces. Bill, you’re in denial.
DODGERS WILL AGAIN VISIT WHITE HOUSE TO CELEBRATE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP, OFFICIAL SAYS
He went on to state how multiple teams across multiple leagues, have refused to celebrate their championships at the White House while Donald Trump is in the Oval Office.
"The 2017 NBA champion Golden State Warriors wouldn’t go. The 2018 Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles wouldn’t go. The 2025 NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder wouldn’t go.
And now this group of Dodgers are going twice?"
And as I, and many of you rational, America-loving readers might have expected, Plaschke reached his inevitable conclusion. He claimed the Dodgers visiting the White House is an "insult to their fans" because President Donald Trump is actively deporting illegal immigrants.
"But what happened two months after that first visit altered even that flimsy bit of logic," Plaschke said while responding to Dodgers officials, claiming that visiting the White House was simply showing respect for the country, the presidency, and not an endorsement of Trump.
"The man inhabiting the office rained terror on Los Angeles with the midsomer ICE raids that changed the lives of thousands."
"Many impacted were the Dodgers fans, who filled the stadium every night for the team with arguably the largest immigrant fan base in sports."
Plaschke then went into further detail, trying to shame the organization for not immediately condemning the raids like other pro sports teams in town.
Ironically, he tries to condemn the organization and its players as some sort of political puppets, claiming that they are "serving as a cheap Trump photo op," so they can honor "a man whose policies have a ravage their fans more than any other group in America."
If anybody is a political pawn, holding water for a political party and its politicians, it’s Plaschke.
Also, funny enough, I couldn't find any evidence that Plaschke was critical of Golden State Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr and point guard Steph Curry endorsing Kamala Harris for president at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Interesting. Liberal players and coaches can do what they want, even blatantly endorse political candidates, but heaven forbid a team accepts the honor for American people and the current administration to recognize and honor their championship achievement.
Easily the most idiotic claim from Plaschke throughout this lecture disguised as an article, was invoking the name of Dodgers' legend Jackie Robinson:
"An organization cannot boast of sharing a uniform with Jackie Robinson while sharing a very public afternoon with President Trump."
In my opinion, without saying it plainly, Plaschke is claiming that the Dodgers attending the White House are somehow supporting racism. It seems to me, making this asinine correlation is at very least, insinuating that President Trump and his administrations ideologies and policies would align with the racists that didn’t support Jackie Robinson and Black players in playing Major League Baseball. That’s inflammatory, unfounded nonsense.
Deporting illegal immigrants is not racist. It’s good policy. It’s what Barack Obama did, even at a grander scale.
Plaschke also stated it "doesn’t compute" that the Dodgers, who he claims "pioneer[ed] LGBTQ+ Pride Night" even "against the wishes of a conservative clubhouse" would normalize "the morality of President Trump" by attending the White House.
Imagine how lost in your liberal worldview you have to be to claim moral superiority, while promoting and defending LGBTQ+ Pride Night, which the Dodgers organization has used to insult Christians and Catholics, many of which make up their fan base.
As he wrapped up his lengthy liberal diatribe, Plaschke pleaded with the organization saying, "It’s not too late. The Dodgers still have time to change their minds and do the right thing." He claimed that the Dodgers should skip the visit for "common human decency."
In his final statements, Plaschke took one more shot at President Trump and went as far as calling the team "losers" if they went through with their visit to the White House.
"The president has treated the Dodgers fans with a careless disregard for their basic community, and the Dodgers need to let him know that is not OK…
Yeah, sure, in two weeks they could threat into the most celebrated residence in America as two time defending champions.
But they would leave as two-time losers."
Bill, maybe you’re the one that is tone-deaf.
Your profession is full of woke, intolerant, hypocritical, delusional, left-wing, political activists, and useful idiots, who think skipping the White House is somehow brave and powerful. It’s the opposite.
The Los Angeles Dodgers organization is correct when they say that visiting the White House is not an endorsement of the man that holds the office.
Teams, individual players, and those in the media like yourself, encouraging them to refuse to visit the White House, says more about you then it does President Donald Trump.
Bill, maybe, just maybe, you may be the one that is an "insult."