Traditionally, championship teams from the majors sports visit the White House to be feted and honored by the sitting president. Since President Trump's inauguration, however, the custom has become tinged with controversy. Most notably, President Trump rescinded his invitation to the NBA-champion Golden State Warriors after their star Steph Curry made some comments critical of the president.
Now, though, it appears the World Series-winning Houston Astros will go through with the planned visit to Washington. Here are the details from Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle:
The Astros recently received their formal invitation to visit the White House, as customary for reigning World Series champions, and plan to attend, according to team president of business operations Reid Ryan.
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"This is a tradition and an honor. For many people, this might be their only time to ever be invited to the White House," Ryan said Wednesday in an interview with the Chronicle. "And as the representatives of baseball and the World Series champs, when the White House calls and invites you to come up, it's something that as an organization we felt both a responsibility and an obligation to be part of."
Kaplan's story has more, including when the Astros might make their visit to the White House. While the team as a collective intends to appear, this of course does not guarantee that each and every player will be in attendance. That's typically the case regardless of team and office-holder.
The Astros' championship predecessors, the 2016 Cubs, rather notably visited the White House on two occasions, the first during President Obama's final days in office and the second about five months after President Trump took office.