For the second year in a row, the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series in 2025. Now, for the second year in a row, the team will be visiting United States President Donald Trump at the White House to celebrate, and one former ESPN star is not happy about it.
In a column this week, longtime Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke unloaded on the Dodgers for accepting an invitation to visit the White House for a second consecutive year.
Dodgers Accept White House Invitation
The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated their 2024 World Series win with Donald Trump at the White House. Now, they’ll be celebrating their second consecutive World Series title there, too.
“As was the case one year ago, the Dodgers’ upcoming visits to the White House and Capitol Hill follow the longtime tradition of visits by other World Series champions,” the team said in a statement. “We appreciate these tributes in recognition of our back-to-back championships.”
“President Trump is excited to welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers BACK to the White House to celebrate their World Series championship!” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to The Times this week.
The visit is set for July 23rd.
‘Sickening’
In a column published on Thursday evening, Plaschke absolutely unloaded on the Dodgers for accepting the invitation, calling the move “sickening.”
“The Dodgers do know they play in Los Angeles, right? Then why in the hell do they insist on embracing the person trying to tear this city apart?” he wrote in his column for the Los Angeles Times. “This is an old issue, it’s been written before, it’s been debated ad nauseam, but it’s happening again and remains as sickening as ever.”
Plaschke responded to the claim that the visit was about tradition and showing respect for the office, not necessarily the man in it, arguing that the team should still refrain from visiting after Trump “rained terror on Los Angeles with the midsummer ICE raids that changed the lives of thousands.”
“An organization cannot boast of sharing a uniform with Jackie Robinson while sharing a very public afternoon with President Trump. That doesn’t work,” he wrote. “An organization that admirably fought back against the wishes of a conservative clubhouse to pioneer Pride Night cannot be the same organization that publicly normalizes the morality of President Trump. That doesn’t compute.”
Plaschke notes that there’s still time for the Dodgers to change their mind, but he does not expect that to happen, calling them “two-time losers” for visiting the White House twice in a row.
Who is Bill Plaschke
Bill Plaschke is a highly respected, award-winning columnist with decades of experience.
A longtime Los Angeles Times columnist, Plaschke has established himself as one of the most recognizable sports columnists in the industry over the years, with his popularity aided greatly by his regular appearances on ESPN’s long-running hit debate show Around the Horn. Plaschke was a regular panelist on the show for more than two decades, making 1,758 appearances until it ended in May 2025.
While Plaschke no longer appears on Around the Horn since the show no longer exists, he is still quite influential in the sports world.
He has been inducted into the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and the California Sports Hall of Fame. He has also been named national Sports Columnist of the Year nine times by the Associated Press, and twice by the Society of Professional Journalists and National Headliner Awards.
About Dave Kelsey
Contributing author to The Comeback.