The 2021 Atlanta Braves were honored at the White House by President Joe Biden on Sept. 26. The team was recognized in the east room for winning last season’s World Series. The visit occurred hours before the team faced division foe Washington Nationals.
“Atlanta is a great sports city — American sports city,” Biden said. “And the Braves are a big reason for that.”
The president also shouted out the late Hank Aaron, the greatest player in franchise history and arguably the greatest baseball player ever. He then chronicled the Braves’ unlikely road to the championship, as a .500 team that got hot at the end of the regular season with momentum carrying into the postseason.
“None of it came easy,” Biden said. “People counted you out. Heck, I — I know something about being counted out. And I know in Georgia, you show up when it counts. When it counts. You never give up. You never give in.”
Among the guests acknowledged at the beginning of Biden’s address were former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who now has a position at the White House and current Mayor Andre Dickens.
The Braves’ transcendent Black star rookie Michael Harris II was not on stage for the ceremony because he wasn’t on the championship team last season. Atlanta clinched a postseason spot for the fifth-consecutive season on Sept. 20.
The 2022 MLB Playoffs are set to begin on Oct. 7.
