Bill Shaikin\u2019s excellent column<\/a> contrasting the Dodgers\u2019 option to visit the White House with Jackie Robinson\u2019s legendary civil rights stands throughout his life.<\/p>\nAs a lifetime Dodger fan who has tried to stay as apolitical as possible, I would be absolutely ashamed of my Dodgers if they were to attend this photo op. I was ashamed last year, too. But nowhere near as much as this year.<\/p>\n
Please don\u2019t go.<\/p>\n
Eric Monson
Temecula<\/p>\n
Just to let Dave Roberts know, there is something bigger than baseball. On the wall in my den are my father\u2019s medals: a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star from when the United States sent my father, Marcelo Villanueva, and others like him, to fight Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n
When our freedoms are being taken away, it\u2019s not OK if you go to the White House and visit the man who is taking them away. Which means my father fought for nothing. You should be ashamed of yourself. You don\u2019t deserve to wear the same uniform Jackie Robinson did.<\/p>\n
Ed Villanueva
Chino Hills<\/p>\n
I agree with Bill Shaikin that for the world champion Dodgers to visit the fascist friendly White House would be an implicit contradiction of Jackie Robinson\u2019s legacy. Most of the players probably don\u2019t care, but you wish a manager like Dave Roberts (in L.A.!) were as smart and sensible as Steve Kerr. Apparently he is not.<\/p>\n
Sean Mitchell
Dallas<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t disagree more with Bill Shaikin and his stance that the Dodgers should decline the opportunity to visit the White House. In a world of increasing stresses and dangers, sports is, or should be, a reprieve from the news reported on the front pages. After 9\/11, for example, we celebrated the return of baseball as a valued respite from the tragedies we were dealing with. Allow baseball to continue to be this respite, Bill, and stop trying to drag sports into the fray.<\/p>\n
Steve Kaye
Oro Valley, Ariz.<\/p>\n
Bad look, Dave. It doesn\u2019t help to invoke Jackie Robinson, then in the next breath, \u201cI am (just) a baseball manager.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can\u2019t have it both ways. Shaikin is right. Decline.<\/p>\n
Joel Soffer
Long Beach<\/p>\n
If Roberts feels he needs to go, he should. But the rest of the team should not. Dodger management should support them. Roberts conveniently thinks that going is not a political statement. It is. Roberts\u2019 going supports Trump. The man who raised him and served this country did not do so to see it under the thumb of a corrupt man who attacks all that it has stood for. Today we are all politically identified by the choices we make. There\u2019s no avoiding it.<\/p>\n
Eric Nelson
Encinitas<\/p>\n
Bill Shaikin nailed it when he talked about and quoted Jackie Robinson and compared him to Dave Roberts\u2019 spineless decision to take the Dodgers to the White House. It\u2019s \u201conly\u201d sports? A team of this renown, in a city terrorized by ICE, in a state directly harmed by Trump? Thank you, Mr. Shaikin, for calling Roberts out.<\/p>\n
Ellen Butler
Long Beach<\/p>\n
Thank you, Dave Roberts, for making the decision to go to the White House and celebrate our Dodgers\u2019 victory in the World Series. It\u2019s a thing called respect for the office of the president no matter what political party is involved. I don\u2019t care about the L.A. Times sports writers\u2019 politics, so keep your political opinions out of the Sports pages.<\/p>\n
Lance Oedekerk
Upland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> I just read Bill Shaikin\u2019s excellent column contrasting the Dodgers\u2019 option to visit the White House…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2135,80800,58698,4396,426,6314,15932,8695,48,52,51,1415,1838,47,50,49,2699,7496,427,3236,2805],"class_list":{"0":"post-168119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bill-shaikin","10":"tag-darius-garland","11":"tag-dave-roberts","12":"tag-dodgers","13":"tag-father","14":"tag-jackie-robinson","15":"tag-james-harden","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-lakers","20":"tag-letter","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","23":"tag-los-angeles-news","24":"tag-return","25":"tag-sport","26":"tag-team","27":"tag-trade","28":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}