Rays ace Chris Archer questions President Obama for ignoring his tweets
Tampa Bay Rays ace Chris Archer was really excited to meet President Barack Obama and the First Lady Michelle before Tuesday's exhibition game in Cuba.
In fact, as soon as Archer found out that the Obamas would be participating in the festivities for the game against the Cuban national team, the young MLB star tried to set up a meet-and-greet sesh by reaching out to @POTUS on Twitter.
Good morning, @POTUS. Since we will be in Havana at the same time lets grab some Cubano cuisine together, my treat!
— Chris Archer (@ChrisArcher22) March 5, 2016
After a few weeks went by, and Archer hadn't heard back from the prez, he hit up the First Lady on Twitter, inviting her to join him for a coffee.
Well, @FLOTUS, your husband didn't respond about hanging out in Cuba. Maybe you and I could get a café or something? Lmk if you're free.?
— Chris Archer (@ChrisArcher22) March 19, 2016
Still, no response.
So when Archer finally got to meet and shake hands with the couple at Latinoamerican Stadium on Tuesday, he demanded answers.
"Neither of them responded to my tweets, which I was pretty upset about and I told them," Archer told ESPN during an in-game interview. But he seemed pretty satisfied with their response.
"The First Lady said they can't get back to everybody," Archer said. "A lot of times it's other people actually checking it for her, because they don't have time to scroll through Twitter. They have, first of all, a family, and they're running the country, but it was all playful and hopefully I'll get a response and if not, I'm totally content with the interaction today."
Archer went on to say that he was honored that President Obama knew who he was, and was humbled by his compliment.
"He told me he appreciated how thoughtful I was in my interviews and speaking about our opportunity to be here and just in general and that's probably the highest compliment i've ever had in my life," Archer said. "He wasn't just appreciative of my ability, but the way that I spoke and carried myself and I've never had a higher compliment."
With only three full seasons in the big leagues, Archer's career is still relatively young, but he's already known for being extremely active in the community and has invested a lot of time and money into philanthropic efforts -- which is why he was happy to chat with the Obamas, if only for a brief moment.
"I shook the first lady's hand as well and he was educating her on who I was, so hopefully there's some potential there, even if they're not in office, to get together and do some things," Archer said. "They're great in the community, they're really about impacting the youth of this world and that's one of my missions in life as well."
