Remarks Honoring the 2024 World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers

The President. That's a good-looking group. I see some people, oftentimes, like politicians, behind me. It's not so pretty. [Laughter] That is a very good-looking group of people.

And I'm thrilled to welcome to the White House very special people, actually very talented people: the 2024 World Series Champion, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And I want to congratulate you on a legendary season. And I watched it very closely. Some of those teams were home teams. And you did a big number. You're really amazing—how it all came out and how it all ended.

With us today is Dodgers owner and chairman, Mark Walter. Thank you very much, Mark. Congratulations. President Stan Kasten. One of the greatest managers of the—really, ever wear the Dodger blue, Dave Roberts. What a time he's had. Where is Dave? Wow.

Manager Dave "Doc" Roberts. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Great job. He's done okay, right?

Mr. Roberts. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

The President. That's great. What a job. I think he would have lasted even with George Steinbrenner. Right? [Laughter] I love George, but he was very quick. He would—you lose two games, and you were fired. Right? Great job, Dave.

Also want to recognize Secretary of Agriculture—we have some great people—Brooke Rollins, who—you know, when I came to office, they said, "The eggs are very—gone through the roof." Eggs. I said, "What the hell are they talking about?" I was there for 4 days, and they were blaming me for eggs. And they had. They've gone up, like, six times or something—some record number. You couldn't get them. And I gave it to Brooke, and I just saw the other day they're down 73 percent. Right? That's pretty good.

And the press doesn't mention that. Nobody talks about it. So I don't—but I know.

Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Thank you. Congratulations.

The Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, who's a big Dodger fan, by the way. Susie, thank you.

And we have also Representatives Kevin Kiley—Congressman Kevin Kiley. Young Kim. Thank you. Congratulations. Great job. Jay Obernolte. Jay. Thanks, Jay. Nanette Barragán. Nanette. Where's Nanette—hi, Nanette. Oh, look at that, huh? What—nice outfit. [Laughter] One of my favorite people, Gus Bilirakis, Congressman. Hi, Gus.

Addison McDowell, new to the Congress but doing a great job. Thank you, Addison. A real good baseball player and a friend of mine, Roger Williams. Great job. And another new congressman, but he's been there a long time in a mental sense because he has really done a job. And he knows Congress very well. He was with me for 7 years. Brian Jack. Brian. Congratulations, Brian.

And others. We have a couple of Senators here. I just don't particularly like them, so I won't introduce. [Laughter]

Over the course of this amazing season, the members of this team—[laughter]——

Participant. [Inaudible]

The President. It's not a big deal.

[At this point, the President addressed the L.A. Dodgers standing behind him.]

There's nobody here. [Laughter]

I didn't think it was that big a deal, actually. [Laughter] It's Washington.

Over the course of this amazing season, the members of this team gave us some of the most incredible performances ever seen on the baseball diamond.

In all of baseball history, only six players have ever hit 40 home runs and stolen 40 bases in a single season, and an elite group known as the "40-40 Club." It's the 40-40 Club, and very few people make it.

But unanimous National League MVP Shohei Ohtani—where is he? Boy, oh boy. Come here, man. [Inaudible] He looks like a movie star. [Laughter] This—he's got a good future, I'm telling you. He shattered all of those records last year. Think of it. All of them.

And he did something even more, because he became the first-ever member of the "50-50 Club." So 40-40 is tough. Hitting 54 home runs and 59 steals, an accomplished—an accomplishment unparalleled in 149 years of Major League Baseball. Think of that. That's just incredible.

Even more incredibly, Shohei clinched that achievement in what some have called the "greatest game ever." Was it that good of a game? Huh?

Participant. Six for six!

The President. That was a pretty good game, actually. Right, Dave?

Mr. Roberts. Heck of a game.

The President. Is he good?

Mr. Roberts. He's get—only getting better.

The President. And he's getting better?

Mr. Roberts. Getting better.

The President. That's scary for a lot of people, huh?

Even more incredibly, Shohei clinched the achievement—I mean, it really was—and in a time that—at an age that nobody ever thought was possible.

On September 19, 2024, he did the unthinkable by going 6-for-6—this is a pretty amazing—I didn't realize it was that good. I saw that game. Six-for-six against the Marlins with 3 homers, 10 RBIs, and a pair of stolen bases. Other than that, it was not a great game. That's—

How many people have gone 6-for-6 just period, right? Not very much, right?

Mr. Roberts. Maybe a dozen.

The President. Maybe a dozen. Amazing.

As you know, the Dodgers were down a lot of talent on the mound last season due to injury. The resilient group used 40 different pitchers, the most ever by an eventual World Series Championship team. They had to go and get them. I don't know how they got them and where they got them, but they got them, because they won. [Laughter]

I know you especially missed the heart and soul of the pitching staff, Clayton Kershaw, who is really fantastic. He is—you are some pitcher, man. [Inaudible]—a lot of money on this guy. [Laughter] Great.

These are the best looking people I've ever seen. [Laughter] It's incredible.

But Clayton has been unbelievable. And if you look at his records and you look at the stamina, the endurance that he's had, and we're really happy to have him. I'm glad to meet him. I've watched him for a long time. He's a young guy yet, but I've watched—you are a young guy, but I've watched you for a long time. So congratulations. Amazing.

All year, the Dodgers faced down adversity. You entered the playoffs battered and bruised but not broken. When you ran out the healthy arms—you ran out of really healthy—they had great arms, but they ran out. It's called sports. It's called baseball, in particular. And pitchers, I guess you could say, in really particular.

But the starting rotation during the National League Division Series, this scrappy Dodgers bullpen shut out the Padres, saved the season, and forced game five.

Then key players battled back from midseason injuries to help deliver the National League pennant, including superstars Mookie Betts—oh, is he good.

Audience members. Mook!

Mr. Roberts. Good looking.

The President. [Inaudible] That's great. Wow.

Mookie. That guy can play, can't he? [Laughter]

I mean, unbelievable. You really—Mookie is—I've been watching it—I don't want to say I watched him when he was on Boston, but I did. [Laughter] I didn't think that was a particularly good trade when they made it, and I happened to be right. [Laughter]

And Max Muncy. I want to congratulate Max. Max. Max. Come here, Max. Great job.

These arms are very strong when I touch them. [Laughter] I'm used to shaking politicians and hitting their arm, and it's like Jell-O. [Laughter] And now it's like—now it's like steel, all these guys. [Laughter]

But, Max, that's great.

And also, Yoshi Yamamoto. Yoshi. Yoshi. Hi, Yoshi. [Inaudible] Thank you.

Wow, what great athletes.

And of course, series MVP Tommy Edman. That was an MP—VP, seriously. [Inaudible]

Second baseman Thomas H. Edman. Appreciate it.

The President. It's a good feeling, right? Of all these guys, you're the guy, right?

Mr. Edman. Absolutely.

The President. Huh? That's pretty good.

That's a lot of talent you had to beat out there for the MVP. But they all had an incredible—Tommy was 407, with 11 RBIs, in 6 games. That's not bad, right? That's not bad. Good job. When it counted too.

Next game, the blockbuster World Series against another iconic team, a team known as the New York Yankees. I love the Yankees. [Laughter] I—George was a great friend of mine. He had very few friends, but he was—[laughter]. And if you want to spend work, sit for nine innings with a game, watching the Yankees play with George, you were exhausted by the end of the game. [Laughter] It was very—it was actually hard work, but we loved George. And they're doing a good job, and they're doing well this season.

And you're already nine and two. And so you're doing a good job. Maybe you'll see the same thing over again.

In game one of the World Series, Freddie Freeman, on a sprained ankle—he's a great player—with a broken finger and a broken rib, channeled Kirk Gibson's legendary walk-off home run in game one of the 1988 World Series. That was a very—that was a game that pretty much everybody remembers. He could hardly swing the bat, but he did. He swung it one time, and it was a shot.

On the first pitch Freddie saw in the bottom of the 10th, he hit an unforgettable walk-off grand slam home run, the first in World Series history. It's amazing.

The Dodgers rode the momentum to win two of their next three games, placing them on the verge of baseball immortality. In the dramatic game five, down five runs on the top of the fifth——that was a strange inning, I'll tell you—[laughter]—for those Yankee fans, but I'm not saying I was a Yankee fan, because I have—[laughter]—I love these people behind me.

But down five runs in the top of the fifth, with two outs and the bases loaded, the Dodgers gave us one of the grittiest half-inning World Series events showings that anybody has ever seen.

Mookie started the rally by beating out a routine ground ball to first, which—he's fast as hell. I don't know how the hell you could—[Laughter]. Having that speed is a great—isn't that a great thing?

Shortstop Markus L. "Mookie" Betts. Yes.

The President. I played baseball, but I was sort of slow. [Laughter] I wasn't fast.

Driving in the phenomenal—Kiké Hernández. Where's Kiké? Kiké. Come here. [Inaudible]

This is a hell of a group. [Laughter]

Then Freddie drove in two more runs, and Teoscar Hernández drove in another couple of runs. Teoscar. [Inaudible] That's a group.

Teoscar, so, are you doing well this season too?

Right fielder Teoscar J. Hernández. A little bit.

The President. Yes? That's what I heard. [Laughter] That's what I heard.

After a few dominant innings from Blake Treinen—where is Blake? Dom—I heard dominant, right? That's dominant. It's good to be dominant. Look how big he is. Great job, Blake.

And the team was crowned the World Series champion against a great team. The Yankees are a great team and always a great franchise. And I guess—I don't know, like, 28 or something—they've won a lot, probably—maybe more than any team in history overall.

And you might be catching them pretty soon if you keep going. You've got little ways to go, I guess.

The scouting report at the start of the series said that the Dodgers could win by focusing on the fundamentals, and that's exactly what they did. You showed America that it's not about individual glory. It's about the team digging deep and sprinting right through first base. And you did that all the time.

I watched some games. I love baseball. I don't get to watch as much as I'd like, but you always see a spirit in this team. I think a lot of that has to do with the ownership and the management, frankly, but you see a spirit on the Dodgers that you don't see with a lot of teams. A lot of teams I turn on, and I say, "Oh, let's forget it." [Laughter] When I turn on the Dodgers, I like to watch the team. And now that I've gotten to meet these guys personally, I like it even more. I'm going to like it even more, and you're off to a great start.

After seeing how successful you've begun this season, I can tell you that you can plan on being back here. I hope you're going to be back here next year. I don't want to give you too—[applause]. I don't want to give you too much, because we want to have a little suspense for the next year.

But I will tell you, we're going to go down—we're going to do something we don't do generally. We're going to run them down really fast—they have a game today? Do you have a game today or tonight? We're going to run them down to the Oval Office, and we're going to show them the fabled Oval Office. And there's nothing like it.

And this wonderful owner—one of the greatest owners in sports, by the way—from everything I've heard, one of the greatest owners in sports, along with your other compatriots—right, fellas? It's a great team of owners, and that's very important.

But we're going to—he said they'd love it, and I think he'd like to do it himself. So, we're going to—[laughter]—we'll get out of here, and we will run. We'll sprint down, and we'll see the Oval Office, which is really something to see.

You know, it's funny. People come from all over—the biggest people, the richest people, the most powerful people—and they come ,and they go into the Oval Office, and they just stare: "Oh, wow. That's something." They all have beautiful offices. They have offices that are the best in the world, in many cases, but they love the Oval Office.

So, with all of that, I'd like to now introduce you to the Dodgers chairman, Mark Walter, to say a few words, and then we're going to follow that up with Clayton, who's going to say a couple of things. And that's a great representative of a great team.

Thank you very much. Mark, Thank you.

Owner and Chairman Mark Walter. Well, thank you very much. We're very pleased to participate in the tradition of bringing champions to the White House.

Last season was an incredible season. We won the World Series. Second time in twenty twenty—and—since 2020, and only eight times in our history—seasons or—our history. We played in front of almost 4 million fans, and we had many millions more on television. Our global following has soared—and not only from Shohei Ohtani, but also from Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Clayton Kershaw, and many, many more.

Alongside this on-field success, we have been deeply immersed in our community. Our players and managers have supported our—have each had foundations and support for communities.

Our trust last year has committed $100 million to help Chicago or—L.A. Fire. [Laughter] And so, on behalf of the organization, I want to thank you.

The President. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Pitcher Clayton Kershaw. Thank you, Mr. President. Appreciate it. Okay. Wow. This is a—this is an incredible honor for me, and to be—to stand here today representing the Los Angeles Dodgers and this group of staff and players behind me today.

The 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers season is one that will go down in the history books, always holding a special place in the hearts of myself and those there with me, as well as millions of Dodger fans around the world. This organization exemplifies what it means to come together as one for a greater purpose and representing—represent something so much bigger than themselves.

The selflessness and humility that each one of these players and staff have shown over the last year is truly an inspiration. They have constantly played hurt, switched positions, and taken the ball to put the team first.

As a spectator for our championship run last year, I was in awe of this group. Their unwavering confidence, coupled with the selfless pursuit for team excellence, was an inspiration. That is why I'm so grateful to get to speak today on their behalf, as I know none of them would say this about themselves. [Laughter]

Moving forward, I hope the 2024 Dodgers can serve as an inspiration to many like they were to me, not just in sports but in life. Remembering to put others before ourselves, it moves a team and a society forward.

So thank you for allowing me to speak today, because the story of the 2024 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers is a true joy to get to tell, and it's because of the extraordinary people that are behind me and their incredible pursuit of excellence.

Thank you.

And, Mr. President, we have a gift for you as well.

[The President was presented with a jersey.]

The President. Oh, that's beautiful—oh, I like that. Wow. Oh, I like that.