Red Sox manager Alex Cora answered the burning question reporters have for his team following their historic World Series win.
Will they visit the White House?
It’s a question recent champions like the Philadelphia Eagles, the Washington Capitals, and the Golden State Warriors have faced and dealt with in several controversial manners over the past year. (RELATED: Eagles Fan Sends Player Angry Letter For Not Wanting To Visit The White House)
And now, it’s the Red Sox’s turn to decide.
Answering a gaggle of curious reporters on Thursday, Cora — Puerto Rican by birth — tried to leave it as vague as possible.
“I’ve been using this platform (as manager) the right way the whole time,” Cora said Thursday via Mass Live. “Whatever we decide is going to be respected. And if we decide to go, I will use my platform the right way. If you start looking at this team, we’ve got guys from the United States and from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico. So I’ll use the platform the right way. Like I said before, and I know the headlines don’t show it, I say I respect the President of the United States. And I know he helps our country (Puerto Rico). So whenever we have to make the decision we’ll make it. And it’s going to be respected.”
Trump doesn’t exactly have the coziest of relationships with Puerto Rico. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz blamed the Trump administration for the death of thousands of Puerto Ricans who were neglected in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Trump later shot back, calling the outcry “bad politics,” and challenging the estimated death toll numbers.
…..This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2018
For what it’s worth, back in September, Cora commented on the fluctuating death toll estimates.
“Three-thousand, six, 18, I don’t know,” Cora said. “We will never know how many we lost. I hate that people make it a political issue. This is about human beings. The people that went through this, they know what happened.”
It looks like that White House visit remains up in the air.