News
Giants enthralled by White House visit
Players peek into Oval Office, meet presidential pooch
Many of the Giants got to meet Bo, the presidential dog. (Ron Edmonds/AP)
By Chris Haft / MLB.com
06/03/09 7:15 PM ET
WASHINGTON -- As Major Leaguers, the Giants are accustomed to being gawked at each day at the ballpark. Wednesday, it was their turn to stand in awe. Sixteen players and a handful of their relatives, team president Larry Baer, manager Bruce Bochy and most of the coaching staff spent about an hour and a half touring the White House. Their visit was well-timed. President Barack Obama's absence enabled the Giants' contingent to see parts of the executive mansion that usually would be off-limits, including the Oval Office -- entry was denied, but a couple of the three Giants groups got to poke their heads in the door -- the Cabinet Room and the Rose Garden. "It's something I don't think I ever would have done or had a chance to do by myself," right-hander Justin Miller said. Each group received the inside story of what they were seeing -- from the presidential family's private movie and television screening room to the numerous portraits of the nation's 44 chief executives -- from guides who sounded like walking, breathing textbooks. Everyone in the Giants' party listened with rapt attention. "What made it so great was hearing the history of how the White House is the way it is," outfielder Randy Winn said. "It was way better, way different, than I expected. I really enjoyed it. Reading about it in history books, seeing pictures of it and seeing it in movies and TV shows, I had kind of a different mental image of what it's like." The Giants absorbed the details of what they saw. Several of them were amazed at seeing a portion of a wall that remained singed from the British attack in 1814. Players lingered in the China Room, where sets of china from each presidential administration were on exhibit. They learned that, to ensure authenticity, artist Gilbert Stuart intentionally misspelled the word "State" as "Sate" in the famed portrait of George Washington saved by Dolley Madison. This wasn't just a civics lesson. Most of the Giants had the privilege of meeting Bo, the Portuguese water dog who recently became an official presidential pet. "It was cool thinking about how neat that dog's life is," Miller said. Indirectly, Bo was the source of one of the excursion's funniest moments. Ducking indoors after a prolonged period in the intense heat, left fielder Fred Lewis found a stack of small towels and grabbed one to remove his perspiration. "Those are for the dog," the giggling tour guide said, prompting laughter. "It was just a regular white towel," explained Lewis, who had innocently used a towel meant for cleaning or drying Bo. "What could I do? It looked pretty clean to me."Chris Haft is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
