The Atlanta Braves Visited the White House, and the Administration Politicized It

The World Series Champion Atlanta Braves — it always feels good to say that — visited the White House on Monday to celebrate last year’s big win with the Big Guy himself.

President Biden hosted the team for several hours at the White House, including a ceremony in the East Room, where the team gave Biden a custom Braves jersey.

“Forever known as the upset kings of October,” Biden said. “One of history’s greatest turnarounds.” He even joked about how the Braves were “given 0.4 percent chance of winning on CNN.”

Players and management were in awe of the honor as anybody would naturally be, all politics aside.

“I’m going to tell you what: It didn’t disappoint,” manager Brian Snitker said. “It was really a neat thing to experience.”

“One of the most exciting moments I’ve had in my life so far, meeting the president and just seeing around the White House,” said second baseman Ozzie Albies.

The most galling moment came when Biden compared the Braves to himself while neglecting to mention that he and other leftists pushed to punish the state the Braves call home.

“People counted you out,” he said. “Heck, I know something about being counted out. And I know in Georgia, you show up when it counts.”

Last summer, Biden didn’t want anybody to show up in Georgia. With the egging on of Georgia-hater Stacey Abrams, Biden and others pushed Major League Baseball to move the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta. Believing the abject lies of Abrams and her fellow racial grievance-mongers that Georgia’s election integrity legislation would disenfranchise minorities, MLB dutifully followed and relocated the game to Colorado, a state with more restrictive voting laws than Georgia.

Flashback for Our VIP Members: CNN Accuses the Braves of Alienating Atlanta’s Black Community With Half-Truths

Of course, the Braves’ World Series victory was sweet revenge against the left, since half the World Series games took place at Truist Park.

But the Biden administration isn’t done trying to tell the Braves what they should do. At a White House press briefing on Monday, a reporter asked press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the Braves’ name and the Tomahawk Chop cheer, which are supposedly racist (but didn’t seem to be problematic when the Braves were perennial cellar-dwellers in the ’80s).

The @Braves should always be the Atlanta Braves.

Go Braves and Keep Choppin’! https://t.co/1gtzqCAEQh

— Brian Kemp (@BrianKempGA) September 26, 2022

Now, we know that Jean-Pierre was doing her duty and repeating boilerplate leftist Biden administration rhetoric, but we also know what “have this conversation” means. It wouldn’t be a conversation; it would instead be an attempt to railroad the Braves into following the same woke path as the Cleveland Indians Guardians and the Washington Redskins Football Team Commanders.

We can be sure that the “conversation” would be full of declarations about being on the “wrong side of history” and about denying Native Americans their dignity — as if the word “brave” is a bad thing. The last thing these people want is a conversation.  It would be a lecture.

And as for the “Native American and indigenous voices” that Jean-Pierre is so worried about, the Braves have basically neutralized the name-change and racism argument in the best possible way by partnering with the Eastern Band of the Cherokee for the past few seasons. The team hosts cultural events celebrating the Cherokee and even sells jerseys with the Braves’ name in the Cherokee language.

The partnership is a winning prospect for all parties involved because it allows sports fans in Atlanta to learn about the fascinating Cherokee culture, it gives the Braves an opportunity to serve part of the greater community of Georgia and North Carolina, and it gets the specter of false accusations of racism off the organization’s back — until some busybody left-wing reporter asks Karine Jean-Pierre about it.

Of course, the bigger issue here is that the left seeks to politicize everything, including sports. If they would just leave sports alone and let people enjoy the competition and pageantry, the world would be more enjoyable. Then again, the left can’t abide having fun.