Cubs celebrate World Series win at White House

by Melanie Zanona - 01/16/17 5:00 PM ET

Theo Epstein, Chicago Cubs’ president of baseball operations, helped carry the team to a historic World Series victory in November to end a 108-year title drought.

On Monday, at a White House event celebrating the win, President Obama joked that Epstein might be able to bring a little of his winning magic to the Democratic Party.

“Theo, as you know, his job is to quench droughts. I’ve talked to him about being [Democratic National Committee] chair,” Obama said of the former Boston Red Sox general manager. “But he’s wisely decided to stick to baseball.”

{mosads}The comments came as the Cubs celebrated their epic World Series win at the White House, becoming the last team to be feted by Obama before he leaves office. The last time the Cubs visted the White House was in 1888.

“I will say to the Cubs, it took you long enough,” Obama said. “I mean I only have four days left. You’re just making it under the wire.”

Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said the visit was fast-tracked so that the longtime Chicagoan could host the team before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

Among the attendees were Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel; former Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg; Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin (D); and Obama’s former senior advisor David Axelrod – who was wearing a “Bryant Rizzo ’16 – Make Chicago Great Again” T-shirt under his suit jacket.

“They said this day would never come,” Obama said to loud cheers. “This is something none of my predecessors got to say: welcome to the White House, World Series champions the Chicago Cubs.”

Although Obama is a fan of the White Sox, the Cubs’ crosstown rivals, he noted that first lady Michelle Obama is a “lifelong” Cubs fan who bonded with her father over watching the team play.

“Michelle has never come to a single event celebrating a champion, until today,” Obama said. “She remembers coming home from school and her dad would be watching a Cubs game. The meaning the Cubs had to her and connecting with her father … I almost choked up. It’s more than about sports.”

Epstein joked that they would give Obama a “midnight pardon” for being a White Sox fan. The team presented the president with an honorary Cubs jersey, a 44-tile, a signed W flag and a lifetime pass to Wrigley Field.

“Best swag I’ve gotten as president,” Obama said.

Obama ticked off a play-by-play of the Game 7 thriller, in which the Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians, 9-7, to break their record-long title drought.

Obama gave a special shout out to National League MVP Kris Bryant, one of the “amazing young talents” of the team “who, like me, marries up.”

He also ribbed first baseman Anthony Rizzo for immediately pocketing the ball from the final out of the World Series-clinching game, and joked that he and retired catcher David Ross have both been on a “yearlong retirement party.”

Obama quipped that Cubs chairman and owner Tom Ricketts met his wife in the Wrigley bleachers 30 years ago, which is “30 years longer than most relationships that start there.”

While the Cubs were visiting the White House before Trump’s inauguration, the team will have at least one connection to the new administration.

Trump has nominated Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts as deputy secretary of Commerce, despite Ricketts’s support for Trump rival and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during the GOP presidential primaries.

Obama closed his remarks at the celebration, which coincided with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in honoring “one of our great American heroes” and highlighting the power of sports to bring people together.

“In our history, sports has the power to bring us together even when we’re divided. There is a line between Jackie Robinson and me standing here,” Obama said. “Sports has a way sometimes of changing hearts in a way that politics or business hasn’t.”