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Theo Epstein’s Cubs Recognized as Champions at the White House

The best GM in baseball offered President Obama—a lifelong White Sox fan—a ‘midnight pardon,’ and welcomed him as a convert into the Cubs family

by
Jonathan Zalman
January 17, 2017
Yuri Gripas/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to team president Theo Epstein(R) as he welcomes the World Champion Chicago Cubs to the White House in Washington, D.C., January 16, 2017. Yuri Gripas/AFP/Getty Images
Yuri Gripas/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to team president Theo Epstein(R) as he welcomes the World Champion Chicago Cubs to the White House in Washington, D.C., January 16, 2017. Yuri Gripas/AFP/Getty Images

The latest leg of President Barack Obama’s seemingly endless, Jeteresque PR campaign—a final victory lap around the baseball diamond, as it were—took place on MLK Day at the White House, where the World Champion Chicago Cubs were honored by the president, and vice versa. There were a lot of really corny jokes and big smiles and bro hugs and gift exchanges and rounds of applause. Make no mistake: The Cubs deserve all the accolades they have been receiving; a title 108 years in the making cements that.

Leading that title run was Cubs General Manager Theo Epstein, who has now shattered two curses—first for Red Sox Nation, and now for the Wrigley Faithful. He has delivered these fan bases out of the desert. And on Monday, he was eloquent in presenting Obama with a number of incredible gifts.

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.