Just like any other morning on a Boston Red Sox road trip, interim manager Torey Lovullo woke up and headed for the gym at the team hotel.
Only this time, he met a new exercise partner during an unforgettable workout that was anything but routine.
When Lovullo arrived to lift weights, there was President Barack Obama pumping iron in a long-sleeve T-shirt and sweats. Lovullo introduced himself and talked baseball with Obama, who was in New York this week for his annual trip to the United Nations.
The Red Sox are in town for a four-game series against the Yankees.
Lovullo says they had a great conversation and he asked Obama when he would be leaving town, because all the security in place was making it awfully inconvenient to come and go and even grab a cup of coffee.
After their chat, Red Sox general manager Mike Hazen snapped a photo of them with his cellphone.
"It was almost unbelievable," Lovullo told MLB.com. "I walked into the same place that he was and we were both civilians. He had the same workout clothes that I did; he just had 15 security guards that were watching his workout. It was a big difference."
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Lovullo said Obama wanted to talk about the White Sox, according to MLB.com.
"He's fairly dialed into what's happening in Major League Baseball and we had a great conversation," Lovullo said. "He was comfortable and easy to talk to."
He added that the president, who was doing free weights, was in "great shape."
"He was following a piece of paper that somebody wrote up for him. He had a towel, he had a protein drink, he had a weight belt, he was doing a circuit," said Lovullo, according to MLB.com. "He wasn't in one place at one time. He actually sat down and he asked if he could share the weights with me and used the same weights I was doing. I know how heavy they were for me and he didn't make them look so heavy. He made them look very easy. He's a strong man who is in good shape."
