Latest news with #CubsFans
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jed Hoyer Reveals How Cubs Fans Are Fueling Bold Trade Deadline Plans
Jed Hoyer Reveals How Cubs Fans Are Fueling Bold Trade Deadline Plans originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Winning can have ripple effects. The Chicago Cubs are having their best regular season since their last World Series title in 2016. At 50-35 and in first place in the National League Central, the Cubs are in a good position for early July, but will still need reinforcements at the deadline to fend off their rivals. Advertisement The Milwaukee Brewers (2.5 games back), St. Louis Cardinals (4 games back), and Cincinnati Reds (6 games back) are all playing good baseball this season, and this Central race is far from over. But, do not expect Chicago to sit back at the deadline. Here is what President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer had to say about their approach, and why the fans are so crucial: 'This place is full almost every night,' Hoyer said Tuesday. 'We'll have the resources to make the moves that we need to make at the deadline.' Jed Hoyer, President of the Chicago Cubs, prepares to throw balls to fans before a game against the San Diego Padres at Wrigley Banks-Imagn Images The Cubs and historic Wrigley Field consistently draw crowds, but something special about this Kyle Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong iteration has fans thinking beyond regular-season success. Advertisement Chicago has not been to the postseason since 2020, and has not won a postseason game since 2017 (Wild Card Game loss in 2018, Wild Card Series sweep in 2020). Hoyer, who is in a contract year with Tucker, should do everything possible to end that streak. Perhaps the most appealing trade asset the Cubs can dangle to suitors is No. 2 prospect C/1B Moisés Ballesteros. He struggled in his five games in the Majors, but his Triple-A stats of a .327 batting average, an .879 OPS, and eight home runs over 68 games should have teams salivating (should he be made available). Whether it be Ballesteros or another top prospect, Hoyer will likely try to sell some of his farm for immediate starting pitching or third base support. Thanks in part to the fans, he should head into the deadline confident in his win-now mentality. Advertisement Related: Cubs Showing Interest in $45 Million Ace to Replace Justin Steele Related: Chicago Cubs' Star Tandem Does Something Not Seen in Over 100 Years This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 2, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Pete Crow-Armstrong makes special Waveland appearance before Guardians game
The post Pete Crow-Armstrong makes special Waveland appearance before Guardians game appeared first on ClutchPoints. Chicago Cubs catcher Pete Crow-Armstrong is 'grateful' after being selected by the fans as an MLB All-Star. To reciprocate the appreciation, he ventured into territory athlete don't typically venture into these days. Advertisement On Thursday, Armstrong huddled with Cubs fans on Waveland Avenue before their game against the Cleveland Guardians, per Jomboy Media. He hung out with a group of fans called the ballhawks who were attempting to catch a ball coming at them. Suddenly, Armstrong emerged in full uniform to grab the ball. The Cubs are 51-35 and are in first place in the National League Central. They are 3.5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers with the All-Star break around the corner. As for Armstrong, he is on a roll. He is batting .268 with 89 hits, 21 home runs, 64 RBIs, and 22 stolen bases. Already, there are talks about Armstrong as a NL MVP candidate. This year will mark his first All-Star game appearance as he joins alongside teammate Kyle Tucker. Advertisement Pete Crow-Armstrong meeting Cubs fans where they're at The sight of Armstrong mingling with Cubs fans in such a setting is refreshing. Refreshing because it is a throwback to baseball of yesteryear when fans and players got to bond. During the golden age of baseball in New York (1940's-1960's), fans were able to mingle with their idols in places such as restaurants, subway trains, etc. Also players had to work in the winter time to compensate for their salaries. So a Dodgers fan in Brooklyn would run into Jackie Robinson working in an appliance store around the holiday season. Willie Mays would famously play stickball with kids in Harlem when he was playing with the New York Giants. Advertisement For the Cubs, their famous 'bleacher bums' would frequent Ray's Bleacher's, a bar just by Wrigley Field in the 1960s after games. While there, they would encounter players such as Fergie Jenkins, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, etc. So Armstrong is bringing that tradition back, even for a day. Related: Kyle Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong make 89-year All-Star history Related: What makes Kyle Tucker's All-Star first half extra impressive to Craig Counsell
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Justin Turner's first home run of the season
Justin Turner hits a home run to left center field to put the Cubs on the board in the top of the 3rd inning
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Pete Crow-Armstrong hits 2 HR with 6 RBI for Cubs after Red Sox's Rafael Devers drives in 8 with 2 HR
Pete Crow-Armstrong's grand slam in the eighth inning lifted the Chicago Cubs to an 8-6 lead and an eventual 13-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night. Armstrong hit two home runs with six RBI, putting him among the league leaders in both categories in what's been an impressive start to his 2025 season. Crow-Armstrong's first homer was a two-run shot in the fourth that put the Cubs on the board after falling behind 4-0. Reds pitcher Hunter Greene threw a 100-mph fastball on the outside edge of the strike zone, yet Crow-Armstrong still pulled it into the right field seats. The grand slam came with a bit more suspense to it. Crow-Armstrong yanked a hanging Tony Santillan slider down the right field line and seemingly willed the fly ball to go fair. The play was reviewed but the home run was upheld, giving Chicago its first lead of the game after falling behind by four runs twice to that point. With 14 home runs, Crow-Armstrong is tied for third in MLB behind four players with 17 and another two who have 15. And his 45 RBI are also tied for third, just behind teammate Seiya Suzuki's 46. Suzuki had had three RBI of his own in Friday's win. Just don't ask Crow-Armstrong how he's doing it. Asked what goes through his mind when he thinks about leading MLB in home runs since April 13, he replied, "Nothing." PCA gives one of the great postgame answers of all time. @Cubs #GoCubsGo #FlyTheW — Billy Krumb (@ClubhouseCancer) May 24, 2025 Suzuki and Crow-Armstrong both trail Boston Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers, who has 47 RBI after driving in eight runs in a 19-8 defeat of the Baltimore Orioles earlier in the day. Devers also blasted two home runs, the first of them a three-run shot in the sixth off Orioles reliever Gregory Soto. Soto's slider caught enough of the inside part of the plate for Devers to crush to right-center field for a 6-2 Boston lead. In the eighth, the Red Sox's designated hitter drove in another five runs in two separate at-bats. He began with an RBI single that drove in Jarren Duran. Devers then returned to the plate with Boston leading 11-3, and Baltimore decided to use third baseman Emmanuel Rivera as a pitcher to give the bullpen a break. Rivera tried to get by with arching eephus pitches but Devers timed the fourth one, which hung in the middle of the strike zone and was launched into the right field bullpen. raffy granny — Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) May 23, 2025 Devers' big day came after Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman left the game after pulling his right quad muscle while rounding first base in the fifth inning. That immediately prompted questions as to whether or not Devers might return to his former position at third base if Bregman is sidelined for a while. Yet Devers' performance probably answered that by demonstrating emphatically how comfortable he is at DH right now. With 12 home runs, he currently ranks fifth in MLB to go with his league-leading RBI total. In May, Devers is batting .419/.517/.757 with seven homers and 28 RBI. That 0-for-19 start with 15 strikeouts is long gone. And presumably, Red Sox manager Alex Cora is not going to mess with that.
New York Times
19-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Behind another exciting Pete Crow-Armstrong game, the Cubs sweep the White Sox
CHICAGO — Pete Crow-Armstrong is turning into a Bears quarterback, because we have to talk about him and to him every game. The difference, of course, is that it's for positive reasons. The young man known by his three initials is already a can't-miss kind of athlete. If the game's on TV and he's at the plate, on base, or, heck, just in the outfield, you don't leave the screen until he's back in the dugout because you never know what he'll do. Advertisement And just to prove there is no task too large for him, Crow-Armstrong almost single-handedly saved the first leg of the crosstown series from turning into a three-day snooze-fest. When it comes to Chicago baseball, you might say PCA has got more pop than the pope. In Friday's series-opening 13-3 win, the leadoff hitter went 4-for-5 with a three-run homer and six RBIs. In Saturday's 7-3 victory, he collected two hits, including a triple and a two-run single. And in the finale, a 6-2 Cubs clincher, he hit a triple to open the bottom of the first and added a double down the right-field line. He scored two runs, showing off his speed. Seiya Suzuki's sac fly drives in PCA 👏 — Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) May 18, 2025 So, if you're scoring at home, the Cubs (28-19) outscored the Sox (14-33) 26-8 in these three day games and PCA went 8-for-14 with a homer, a double and two triples, 8 RBIs and four runs scored in front of crowds eclipsing 40,000 all weekend. (On Sunday, Vidal Bruján scored on Crow-Armstrong's double down the first-base line, but it wasn't counted as an RBI.) 'I love feeding off a good Wrigley crowd,' Crow-Armstrong said. 'There's no bad day when the bleachers are filled.' If you thought Sunday's installation of Pope Konerko XIV, sorry I mean Leo XIV, was going to bless the Sox, well, you weren't counting on the Cubs' new saint of center field. Still, it might've made sense to think the Sox could steal a game here based on recent precedent. The North Siders were 0-3 at home on Sunday this season and in six previous three-game series where they won the first two games, the only time they finished off the sweep was in Sacramento on April 2. They hadn't swept a three-game series over the Sox since 2008. Then again, you should always bet the streak too, right? Advertisement The Cubs have now won eight straight games in this series, which is their longest run in the rivalry. Each team swept the other at their home park in 2008, that magical season in which both teams made the playoffs and people were talking about a rematch of the 1906 World Series. Those were the days when anything could happen in a Cubs-White Sox series. These are the days when the only thing that seems to happen is a dwindling group of reporters lamenting how the series used to mean something. I'm embarrassed by myself whenever I ask a player about the rivalry, but old habits linger. We used to have Ozzie Guillen, the manager, talking about the Wrigley Field rats being as big as Sammy Sosa, A.J. Pierzynski stirring it up, Michael Barrett inciting a brawl by punching Pierzynski, Lou Piniella ripping Steve Stone, Piniella ejecting his own players from his dugout because they were being annoying (which happened two years in a row). Heck, we once had writers from the same newspaper almost come to blows in the Wrigley Field press box during this series. But there's no tension anymore in this rivalry and few personalities to juice a rivalry. We didn't even see Guillen, now the team's pre- and postgame host, at the ballpark this week, which was a bummer, though I did hear him talking about the rats on the radio Friday morning. At least we have PCA, who along with his offensive exploits, also made several highlight-reel catches in the first two games. As our Patrick Mooney just wrote, he's putting his name in the NL MVP conversation. Beyond his actual contributions on the field, he's also just really, really entertaining to watch. It's not an act either. PCA is SPEED. — Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) May 18, 2025 'I think baseball brings it out of all of us, if anything,' he said of his on-field flair. 'It's about the sport, it's about the competition and wanting to win so badly every day. It's really just baseball pulling it out of me specifically, but I think a lot of people probably feed off the game the same way.' The other star of the series was a more unlikely one in the White Sox's Miguel Vargas, who cemented his status as the best third baseman in town. (To be fair, Cubs prospect Matt Shaw is likely on his way back from Iowa.) Vargas hit his third homer of the series Sunday, which is also half of his season total. (The Sox have homered in 19 consecutive games at Wrigley, which reminded me of that 2020 series when they hit 12 in three games in an empty ballpark.) Vargas has been on a tear since his batting average dropped to .139 on April 21. In the 22 games since, he's hitting .350 with 11 extra-base hits and 15 RBIs. They're even selling his jersey at the Sox ballpark now. (You might have to look for it, though.) Advertisement Vargas was acquired in what looked like a stone-cold loser of a deadline trade by Sox general manager Chris Getz last season. He's been so hot that when Cubs reliever Brad Keller hit him with an inside fastball in the eighth, he took umbrage with it. Keller was a bit confused, but nothing came of it. No beanball exchange or postgame war of words. In a more heated era, even without intent, maybe that pitch is stored away for months — the teams face off again on July 25-27 on the South Side — but this weekend, there was no blood-boiling drama at Wrigley Field. It was just what we expected: a first-place team beating up on a last-place one and a young Cubs star showing everyone what he's capable of.
