WASHINGTON - Within a matter of days last November, the Cubs won a staggering World Series for the first time in 108 years and Donald Trump won a scathing election to become the 45th president.
Those two surreal worlds will collide again on Wednesday when a group of Cubs get a private White House tour that can be interpreted as a political statement, something larger than this four-game series against the Washington Nationals.
This comes less than six months after the Cubs enjoyed an East Room ceremony that became the final official event at Barack Obama's White House, at a polarizing time when speculation centered on whether or not the Golden State Warriors would skip the traditional photo op with Trump, not wanting to make an implicit endorsement after winning another NBA title.
"You'd have to talk to the Warriors," manager Joe Maddon said Tuesday. "To go tomorrow is out of respect to the Ricketts family and to the office and the building itself. Listen, I like the United States a lot. I like living here a lot. And I like everything that it represents a lot.
"So when you get a chance as a citizen to get to go to the White House, you go. I think you go. Whether you like the person that's running the country or not - out of respect to the office itself - you go.
"I don't agree with all the other banter that's going on right now, because I have a different perspective."
