Column: An impromptu thank-you speech from Pete Crow-Armstrong brings a ballpark community closer
Pete Crow-Armstrong ambled up to the mic and held it like he was giving a toast at his best friend's wedding.
'You guys go through the same 162-game season we do, in a way,' Crow-Armstrong told the ballpark employees. 'You do so much for us in terms of our families and people that matter to me and my teammates. First and foremost, that's one of the more important things I recognize when we think about you guys and the work that you do. And I know it's been so hot recently, and I just appreciate you guys on a daily basis being out there with us, and doing a lot of work … You guys are the best.'
Crow-Armstrong told the workers they helped make Wrigley the special place it is, and thanked them for the conversations and relationships he's developed in his young career. He even agreed to go to dinner with one of them. When the brief speech ended, Crow-Armstrong received an ovation, and one usher was brought to tears.
Crow-Armstrong wasn't the first player to offer his thanks to the workers. Some remembered Patrick Wisdom and Ben Zobrist doing likewise as Cubs.
But for a 23-year-old who sometimes lets his emotions get the best of him when he makes an out — as happened again Saturday, another helmet slam following a bases-loaded strikeout to end the sixth — it showed a sense of maturity that many veteran players lack.
PCA's thank-you speech was a small gesture from a young player that might have been easy to overlook in the course of a long baseball season, especially on a hot day when the Cubs blew a late lead, allowing five runs in the eighth inning to end a four-game win streak before a crowd of 40,119.
Yet for dozens of ballpark workers, many of whom are retirees working for low wages in sometimes harsh conditions because of their love for the Cubs, it was a perfect way to connect with a team that has captured the city.
Crow-Armstrong's ascension from a free-swinging prospect with great defensive skills to an All-Star starter and one of the best all-around players in the game has been the most remarkable story in a season full of them. Kyle Tucker also is an MVP candidate, Seiya Suzuki leads the majors in RBI, and Michael Busch had a three-homer game Friday, part of a franchise-record eight home run afternoon in an 11-3 win over the Cardinals.
Busch has been an unsung hero of this team because he's avoided the spotlight. But he began Saturday ranked sixth in the majors with a .920 OPS and was first among all first basemen in OPS and slugging percentage (547). Given another opportunity to face a left-hander Saturday with Matthew Liberatore on the mound, Busch homered again and had seven straight hits off Cardinals pitching in the series until striking out in the seventh.
Manager Craig Counsell said playing in the shadows hasn't affected Busch at all.
'You can give Michael Busch a lot of attention,' he said. 'He's not going to care. That's just who Michael is. That's what you're going to get.'
Busch couldn't recall a two-game streak like this.
'It's always fun to string together quite a few at-bats,' he said. 'You go through stretches when you're feeling it, and you go through stretches when you're not. Just try to hold those for as long as possible and minimize the other ones.'
Busch, Suzuki, Carson Kelly and Matthew Boyd will find out Sunday whether they will join Crow-Armstrong and Tucker at the All-Star Game in Atlanta. Reserves and pitchers will be announced at 4 p.m. Sunday, shortly before the 5:10 p.m. start of the rubber game matchup of Boyd and Erick Fedde on 'Sunday Night Baseball.'
'Obviously Pete and Kyle are going, and we should have a handful,' Busch said. 'Hopefully there are as many as there are (players) deserving of it. That will be exciting for the team itself. We spend a lot of time together, and we see how much time all those guys put in and the things they go through. We'll be excited as a group and hopefully win the series tomorrow.'
On a day a southwest wind blew out at 14 mph, the Cardinals came back thanks to a couple of home runs sandwiched around a bunt. Brad Keller, the fifth Cubs pitcher on a bullpen day, came into the eighth inning with a two-run lead before allowing a one-out home run to Alec Burleson and a single to Thomas Sagesse. Lars Nootbaar laid down a bunt between Keller and Kelly that landed in no-man's land. Both deferred to the other, allowing Nootbaar to reach and put two men on.
'It was one of those things where we both called it at the same time,' Keller said. 'And we both backed away right at the same time. it's frustrating, but a little (miscommunication) was all it was.'
After Nolan Gorman's game-tying RBI single, pinch-hitter Yohel Pozo pounded a Keller slider onto Waveland Avenue for a three-run home run. Suzuki's run-scoring double in the eighth pulled the Cubs to within two runs, but Crow-Armstrong grounded to first base to end the inning and Ryan Helsley notched his 17th save.
The Cubs have one more home game Sunday before hitting the road to Minnesota and New York, ending the final week before the All-Star break with a big series against the Yankees in the Bronx. They won't be home again until July 18 against the Boston Red Sox, when the race really heats up.
We'll find out in the coming weeks whether the Cubs have enough pitching depth to make up for the recent loss of starter Jameson Taillon to a calf injury, whether president Jed Hoyer can find some much-needed help for the stretch run, and whether a veteran-laden bullpen can continue handling the pressure after saving the Cubs the last three months.
A day at Wrigley Field during a pennant race is something to be savored, and something Cubs fans might have taken for granted when they made it a habit from 2015 through the end of the Joe Maddon era.
And when players can connect with the rest of the ballpark employees, like Crow-Armstrong did Saturday with his impromptu pregame speech, it's a team in the truest sense of the word.
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