WASHINGTON — The Texas Rangers will visit the White House with President Joe Biden on Thursday to celebrate their 2023 World Series championship, saying the team will make a triumphant return to the city where the franchise was founded.
“You've returned to the nation's capital as world champions, and rightly so,” Biden said, referring to the team that was the Washington Senators before moving to Texas in 1972. “I think there's one word that you all embody, and that's 'resilience.'”
It's a long-standing tradition for professional and college championship teams to visit the White House to be honored by the president, but the visit marked a rare public appearance for Biden since announcing on July 21 that he was giving up reelection and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination in November.
The Rangers currently play in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, but Biden said the city and region have become accustomed to championship football, basketball and hockey, and many are wondering “whether baseball will ever join the mix.”
He noted the Rangers failed to win the American League West last year, which was “the toughest we've ever had.” The team made the playoffs as a wild card and beat Tampa Bay and Baltimore before “getting revenge on the Houston Astros” to reach the World Series, Biden said. The team beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games in November to clinch a spot in the World Series.
“You never gave up,” Biden said. “You stuck to your guns.”
The event in the East Room began with the band performing an orchestral version of “Higher,” the 1999 Creed hit that has become the Rangers' unofficial theme song for 2023. The Rangers are in the middle of their season, losing at home to the Astros on Wednesday and heading to New York after the ceremony for a series against the Yankees.
It was the Rangers' first championship but the fourth for manager Bruce Bochy, who previously visited the White House after three winning seasons with the San Francisco Giants in 2010, 2012 and 2014, all of which he celebrated under President Barack Obama.
Biden noted that Boetsch is missing a finger on one hand to wear his World Series championship ring and that if he wants to win a fifth championship, “he'll need another finger” unless he puts the ring on his thumb. “I don't know how he does that,” Biden added.
Rangers general manager Chris Young called last season a “roller coaster.”
“We had good times, we had bad times, we had moments where it seemed like we really couldn't win a World Series,” Young said, “but this team never gave up hope. We never lost our way.”
He said the players had “changed the image of our team forever” and that the fans had “waited for this victory for a long time.”
“You all are getting what you deserve,” Young said. “We thank you for your patience.”
As the players and Biden spoke, the World Series trophy sat on a table nearby, along with a Rangers jersey with Biden's name and number 46 on it and Rangers cowboy boots, which Biden declared would “add another two inches to my height.”
“I had a great arm,” Biden joked, holding up his jersey. “I don't have one anymore.”
