Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said this weekend he refused to stay at the Trump International Hotel and Tower with the rest of his team when they played in Chicago in May.
Gonzalez, who is Mexican-American, did not officially cite Republican nominee Donald Trump as the reason for his decision not to stay at the hotel with his teammates, but his implication was heavy.
“I didn’t stay there,” Gonzalez told the Orange County Register. “I had my reasons.”
The newspaper reported that the Dodgers have stayed at Trump’s luxury Chicago hotel for years. Gonzalez’s protest forced the team’s management to find him alternative accomodations in the Windy City.
Gonzalez, who was born in San Diego, spent some of his childhood in Tijuana, Mexico. Trump notoriously called illegal immigrants who enter the U.S. from Mexico “rapists” and said they are “bringing crime.”
Yet despite the team’s longstanding ties to Trump’s Chicago hotel, they did not stay there this weekend during the National League Championship Series, where they are currently tied 1-1 with the Chicago Cubs. The Register reported that the hotel required a nonrefundable desposit to hold a block reservation, which the Dodgers didn’t know whether they would need until their late-night division series victory over the Washington Nationals Thursday night.
