President Barack Obama, wrapping up his last week in office,
celebrated with the World Series champion Chicago Cubs at the White
House on Monday.
The president, who has a home in Chicago, is a diehard Chicago
White Sox fan but rooted for the Cubs after the Sox failed to reach
the postseason.
The Cubs won their first World Series title since 1908 by defeating
the Cleveland Indians in November.
Cubs players filed into the White House East Room on Martin Luther
King Day for Obama's final ceremony for a championship sports team.
He leaves office Friday when Donald Trump is sworn in.
As Obama walked into the East Room, the boisterous audience
chanted, "Let's Go, Cubbies!"
"They said this day would never come," Obama said as he started his
remarks, adding: "Something none of my predecessors ever had a
chance to say, 'Welcome to the White House, the World Series
champion Chicago Cubs.' ... I will say that the Cubs took long
enough. I've only got four days left."
Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who wears No. 44, presented the
nation's 44th president with a No. 44 Cubs jersey with OBAMA on the
back.
"Among Sox fans," Obama said, "I'm the Cubs' No. 1 fan."
Cubs president Theo Epstein issued a "midnight pardon" to the
president for being a White Sox fan.
Obama said on Martin Luther King Day that "sports has the power to
bring us together even when we're divided. There is a line between
Jackie Robinson and me standing here. Sports has a way sometimes of
changing hearts in a way that politics or business hasn't."
