The Astros’ White House visit wasn’t without its awkward moments

The Astros visited the White House on Monday to celebrate their World Series win, and it wasn’t without (slight) incident. We already knew Carlos Beltran wasn’t going to join his former team, which he announced back in February because he’d rather spend time with his family and enjoy retirement. Which is all valid.

But Carlos Correa also declined to attend, citing a family obligation according to the Houston Chronicle. Other players who didn’t attend include Ken Giles (who was on the playoff roster and also gave family time as his reason) and Francis Marte (who wasn’t on the playoff roster, and didn’t give a reason).

All of the other major Astros players did attend, including World Series MVP Jose Altuve. Altuve had at least one semi-awkward moment with President Donald Trump, although it’s hard to tell exactly how awkward their interactions were from the video available. Early in the visit, it looks as if Altuve declined to shake the president’s hand ...

... only for that to be made even more unclear by a later moment when they did indeed shake hands.

It’s hard to tell whether Altuve thought he was only going to be faced with shaking Trump’s hand once and then couldn’t get away with declining in a one-on-one situation or whether he was just trying to have his cake and eat it too. Trump also apparently bragged about golfing with Justin Verlander, because of course he did.

Also at the visit, Astros owner Jim Crane took the time to applaud the team for their unity after Hurricane Harvey and how happy he was to give that win back to the city and Texas after such the disaster.

While there weren’t any overt political statements made one way or another, there were a bunch of Astros that gave Trump the evil eye behind his back or were otherwise stone faced.

So take that as you will.