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Red Sox manager Alex Cora talks to reporters before Monday's game in Baltimore. (Nick Wass)
BALTIMORE – Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora recently discovered the "mute" feature on Twitter, which proved useful in the wake of his decision, unveiled for the first time this weekend by a newspaper. his country, Puerto Rico, not to participate in the World Series in defense. scheduled visit of the champions to the White House on Thursday.
But to this day, no button of this type exists in real life. Thus, Monday afternoon, in the Oriole Park canoe at Camden Yards, Cora patiently answered questions for a third day in a row about this decision. The visit to the White House of the Red Sox is increasingly presented as a story of race, ethnicity and politics.
"I learned the conviction of my father and my mother," Cora said Monday about her decision. "The last text I received before the match came from my mother, and it was powerful."
The manager or coach of a championship team seldom, if ever, miss the traditional White House visit the following season (provided they are employed by the franchise). As such, Cora became the most prominent member of the Red Sox and announced his intention to avoid the visit of President Trump, whose attitude toward helping Puerto Rico after the Hurricane Maria's passing in 2017 remains a flash point for residents and natives of the island territory.
[[[[Red Sox manager Alex Cora will not visit the White House]
But Cora is not the only member in uniform of the Red Sox to be removed from the trip. Among the players, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Rafael Devers, Sandy Leon, Eduardo Nunez, David Price, Christian Vazquez and Hector Velazquez have publicly announced that they would refuse the invitation. The other 20 or so players (some of whom are on the wounded list) have either announced their intention to be present or are expected to follow them.
It was impossible not to notice a significant difference between the two groups: the people who chose not to participate in the trip are all people of color while those who planned to attend (with the exception designated hitter, JD Martinez, of Cuban origin), are white. This dichotomy was highlighted by a tweet from Boston's long-time sports columnist, Steve Buckley, who said:[B]also, it's the White Sox that will go. "
The racial divide was further accentuated when Price, an African-American, retweeted Buckley's tweet to his nearly 1.8 million followers, adding, "I feel like more than 38,000 people should see this. tweet … "- a reference to Buckley's Twitter after about 38,000. Price's retweet led to rampant speculation on Monday that the racial division of the White House visit had become a clubhouse problem for the team . However, Price later clarified his position in the Boston Globe, saying that Buckley's original tweet "was an insensitive tweet that was to be seen by more people."
Previously, Price had explained his decision to withdraw from visiting the White House, during an interview with MLB Network, stating: "It's the baseball season." Most of the players were just as crazy in their reasoning to ignore the event, although Velazquez, who is from Mexico, told reporters that he was ditching himself because Trump "said a lot about Mexico "and that he did not want to offend anyone in his native country.
The Red Sox leadership presented the issue as a matter of personal choice, not policy. Having also won the World Series titles in 2004, 2007 and 2013, the team has already visited the White House under the Republican and Democratic Presidents. This week, the team will conduct separate charter flights to Boston, one day apart, for players who choose not to attend the White House visit and those who wish to attend.
Cora replied: "Not at all," he told a player on Monday who feared some tension among the players to know which of them are visiting the White House or not. Red Sox players echoed this sentiment. Bogaerts told reporters: "It's a personal choice and everyone respects that." It has no effect [in the clubhouse] or in the field. "
But Cora clearly explained why he skipped the ceremony at the White House, linking the decision to persistent resentment in Puerto Rico to the Trump administration's reaction to Hurricane Maria, who killed More than 3,000 residents in September 2017. He stressed Sunday Puerto Ricans "still struggle, are still fighting" and lack of "necessities" almost a year and a half since Maria.
"It's a decision I made with great conviction," he repeated Monday. "… I think the message was clear [and] simple, and everyone understands. I do not feel comfortable attending a celebration as we live what we live at home. "
Since the beginning of the Trump administration, the traditional visit of the championship teams to the White House has taken a more political tone. Earlier, many members of the Philadelphia Eagles 2017 and Golden State Warriors 2016-17 had decided en masse against the visit to the White House, but Trump then canceled the invitations. The president has also been criticized for serving quick meals to members of the Clemson 2018 football team, while some members of the 2018 New England Patriots have made it clear that they do not want to go to court. were not going to attend a celebration at the White House.
On Monday, the very day that Price's controversy over Twitter was raised and Cora reiterated the reasons for his omission, the White House staged a Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony, during which Trump slipped the medal – the country's highest civilian honor – on the head of Tiger Woods, who is of African-American and Asian descent.
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