The Rise and the Significance of a New Wrigley Field Hero

[Brian Kelder]

Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Father's Day was a bit of a bust in my household. A nasty stomach bug laid me up, with no parties welcoming the contaminated and no tasty food or beverages. All there was to do was watch the Cubs and the Pirates in the afternoon. The game wasn't the main thing. Given my physical and mental state, it became more about the sorting of emotions of an old, curmudgeonly fan who still smarts about Kyle Schwarber's non-tender and the bungled negotiations with Anthony Rizzo, to finally accept this team as it is.

This writer entered a Cubs fog after those two events, to the point of not watching a single inning after the teardown was complete in 2021. Then, in 2022, with little hope. baseball in the Kelder house was consumed by just watching national broadcasts. The cataracts fogging up the fandom continued, in a self-sustaining cycle of doubt and frustration.

Between that game and Pete Crow-Armstrong's eighth inning against the Brewers last Tuesday night, though, clarity emerged. A new prescription was filled, and I fully embraced this team again.

To further explore this clarity. you have to go back to Kenosha, Wis., and a six-year-old nerd who would watch every game he could on WGN. Ryne Sandberg was just breaking in, and (in 1984) breaking out on a national level. An all-time MLB legend was my favorite, and that of most Cubs fans I knew, too. I wore No. 23; I played second base (a good fit anyway, given my noodle arm) in high school after moving to Onalaska, Wis.; and when my dad, brother, and I went to Cooperstown, his was the first plaque I visited. 

Fast-forward to 1998 (and the Sammy Sosa era), if you will. Once again, a Cub was in the national spotlight. Similar to Sandberg, Sosa was revered by most fans, overlooking a few flaws for the experience of rooting for a cartoon-level superhero figure—another Wrigley Field hero. While he did fall, and recently has been restored, Sosa was a guy whom Cubs fans had to watch every time he went up to the plate.

Derrek Lee, Anthony Rizzo (though that was more the team than one guy), Javier Báez, Ron Santo, Ernie Banks. Wrigley legends, all. They became synonymous with the experience of that park and its rowdy crowds, through the decades.

And we've added another this year. Pete Crow-Armstrong is the Cubs.

He's not just a statistical monster, although his numbers hold up well. It's the way the kid plays. He hustles. He plays with flair. He has the best bat flips in baseball, and then when interviewed, he shows a humility that is completely unexpected when watching him play. His dugout antics are hilarious, especially his relationship with Seiya Suzuki.

He is everything you can ask for in a baseball player, and he's guaranteed to be a Chicago Cub for at least five more seasons. Cub fans who are (say) 15 and under have their Sandberg, their Sosa. And fans who remember these halcyon days can finally see the torch passed to a new player.

The rest of baseball is watching. Pete Crow-Armstrong is the newest Wrigley Field hero, and with his rise has come a return of the feeling around Wrigley that never quite took root even over the last two, tried-and-failed summers.

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