Settling down with wife Michelle, daughters Sasha and Malia, Obama appeared carefree as he enjoyed the game - ignoring calls to cut short his historic trip to return to Washington and lead the response.

Indeed, despite criticism that he only devoted one minute of his speech earlier in the day to the Belgian atrocities, Obama took the time to give a somewhat surreal 15-minute interview to ESPN about the threat posed by ISIS - keeping his $500 shades on throughout the spot.

After observing a moment of silence for the hundreds of victims, a relaxed Obama said, 'This is just one more example of why the entire world needs to unite against these terrorists.'

'The notion that any political agenda would justify the killing of innocent people like this is ... is beyond the pale.'

Obama said, 'We are gonna continue with the over 60 nations that are pounding ISIS, and we're going to go after them. In the meantime, obviously our thoughts and prayers are with those who've been lost and hoping for a speedy recovery or those who've been injured.'

When asked by ESPN why he had not returned to Washington, the president said to do so would show the terrorists they have the power to disrupt.

'It's always a challenge when you have a terrorist attack anywhere in the world, particularly in this age of 24/7 news coverage,' said the president. 'You want to be respectful and understand the gravity of the situation, but the whole premise of terrorism is to try to disrupt people's ordinary lives.'

'That is the kind of resilience and the kind of strength that we have to continually show in the face of these terrorists. They cannot defeat America.'

The president then offered his 'thoughts and prayers' to those affected by the terror attacks.

Just after the game ended and Air Force One took off for Argentina for a two-day stint, the president ordered all federal flags to be flown at half mast as a mark of respect for those who were killed in Tuesday morning's attacks.

Prior to his interview with ESPN, Obama had faced calls from Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and John Kasich to leave Cuba and return to the states.

The president did not heed their advice. He dedicated a brief portion of a planned speech to the attacks and went on about his day.

He met Cuban dissidents at the US Embassy in Havana, then made his way to watch the baseball in casual khaki pants, white shirt, no tie, and sunglasses, Daily mail reported.

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