Yankees excited about today's trip to White House

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Derek Jeter said the Oval Office reminds him of another big boss' office he's seen.

"It's sort of like being in Steinbrenner's office," he said before yesterday's game. "It's pretty similar."

And less intimidating. "Usually you're in trouble," he said with a smile, referring to past visits with George Steinbrenner.

Jeter and his teammates will meet with a boss of a different kind Monday as the Yankees visit the White House to be honored by President Obama for winning last year's World Series.

Jeter, along with teammates Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, will be making their fifth White House visit, having previously been hosted as champions by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

"You never get tired of meeting a president," said Jeter, who met Obama last summer when the president was in the American League clubhouse before the All-Star Game in St. Louis.

Pettitte will be meeting his fourth president, having also become friendly with President George H.W. Bush.

"I think just growing up and seeing the Oval Office and stuff like that and then the [Rose Garden] outside the office when they hold some kind of special [event] and then all of a sudden you're standing there," Pettitte said. "I guess it's like the first time you go to Fenway or the first time you go to Wrigley; that's what it kind of was like for me. It's kind of cool."

Manager Joe Girardi, who will be able to engage in some Chicago talk with Obama, made three White House visits as a player.

"You're in awe of the physical structure of the building and the Oval Office," Girardi said. "But I think just meeting the president, even trying to imagine . . . I don't think any of us can really fathom what his life is like and what it entails."

Mark Teixeira has been to the White House before, though not as a champion. He was a guest of George W. Bush in 2005 when he was a member of the Rangers, who once were owned by Bush.

" Tom Hicks and him are buddies from their Rangers days," Teixeira said. "We took about 10 guys from the organization and I was lucky enough to be one of them."

He called visiting the Oval Office "incredible" and looked forward to returning Monday "for a better reason." Said Teixeira, "Any time you get a chance to visit the White House as world champions, that's special."

Before visiting the White House, Yankees players, coaches and executives - including managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, president Randy Levine, general manager Brian Cashman and assistant general manager Jean Afterman - will take the 2009 World Series trophy and visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center and the nearby Malone House, a long-term rehabilitation home for soldiers.

Nick Swisher said he has "goose bumps" thinking about going to the White House but also is looking forward to what takes place before. Last season during a series in Baltimore, Swisher and several teammates took a trip to Walter Reed.

"Those guys are the true heroes," Swisher said of the soldiers. "Those guys are the reasons we have this here today. To be able to tell those guys 'thank you' face-to-face, that's where it's at."