Biden quips he knows ‘something about being counted out’ to World Series champs Atlanta Braves

President Biden hosted the Atlanta Braves, who won the 2021 World Series, at the White House on Monday, quipping that he also knows “about being counted out.”

Biden called Atlanta’s World Series win “one of history’s greatest turnarounds.”

“I know a little something about being counted out, and I know in Georgia, you show up when it counts,” the president said.

The team gifted Biden a Braves jersey with the number 46, which the president held up and showed around the room before taking a photograph with the team.

The president said the Braves will be “forever known as the upset kings of October.” The Braves had won fewer than half their games at the All-Star break during the 2021 season, but went on to beat the Houston Astros to win the World Series.

Biden’s defeat of former President Trump in Georgia was crucial to his 2020 election victory, which followed Biden’s early struggles in the Democratic primary race.

Biden, to kick off Monday’s event, joked about how the Braves also beat the Philadelphia Phillies and poked fun at first lady Jill Biden, who is a Phillies fan.

“I was telling the guys back in the other side of the building that I married a Philly girl and she’s smarter than I am and she’s a hell of a lot better looking, and like every Philly fan she’s convinced she knows more about everything in sports than anybody else,” he said. “And these guys beat the Phillies.”

He called Atlanta a great American sports city and acknowledged the franchise’s rich baseball history.

“This team has literally been part of the American history for over 150 years. The only franchise to field players in every single season since pro baseball began in 1870,” he said of the Braves, which started out in Boston before relocating to Milwaukee and later Atlanta.

In attendance at the White House was former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom (D), who has since joined the Biden administration as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Current Mayor Andre Dickens (D) was also in attendance.

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