The NLCS is shaping up to be a fantastic series, with two of the sport’s marquee franchises in the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs having taken vastly different routes to the precipice of the World Series. Adrian Gonzalez provided the only score of the Dodgers’ Game 2 win with a solo homer, and as the series shifts back to Los Angeles, he was asked about his hotel accommodations. It makes sense once you realize that the Dodgers’ team hotel in Chicago is the Trump International.
Gonzalez was asked if he stayed with the team when they visited Chicago in June, and his response was as simple as it was meaningful.
“I didn’t stay there,” Adrian Gonzalez confirmed. “I had my reasons.”
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Gonzalez smiled as he declined to specify his reasons for not staying at the team hotel in June, saying, “We’re here to play baseball, not talk politics.”
Even a “no comment” is political in this case, as San Diego native Gonzalez was born of Mexican parents and spent a large chunk of his childhood in Mexico. Donald Trump’s political platform of building a wall between Mexico and the United States, as well as his comments early in his campaign that Mexico imports rapists across the border, have antagonized millions. Gonzalez hardly needs a reason to avoid Trump’s products, but that’s more than enough.
The Dodgers didn’t stay at the Trump hotel at all during their first trip to Chicago for the NLCS, but they say it was because they couldn’t reserve any rooms on their short turnaround.