Paul Sullivan: Baseball is back as Cubs and White Sox meet in the Cactus League opener. Enjoy it while it lasts.
· Yahoo Sports
MESA, Ariz. — White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami and Cubs star Seiya Suzuki are close enough that Suzuki offered his friend some advice about what to expect when he gets to Chicago.
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“I talked to him in the offseason, talking to him about Chicago, (how) it’s a great city and he’s going to love it,” Suzuki said Friday through an interpreter. “And be careful because it does get really cold.”
Suzuki paused for his interpreter to finish before adding: “I really emphasized the cold part.”
“That is very true,” Murakami confirmed through the Sox interpreter.
Murakami and Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman debuted for their new teams Friday in the Sox’s 8-1 win on a chilly but sunny afternoon that drew 14,419 to Sloan Park for the Cactus League opener.
The 2026 season, which could be the last one for a while if the owners lock out the players in December, was off and running.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
Back in frigid Chicago, fans from both sides of town could take solace in the fact that baseball games will be played from now until at least the end of September, maybe longer. There will be heartaches and heart attacks along the way, but there always will be a tomorrow, the enduring beauty of baseball.
“Won’t this season ever end?”
Former Chicago Sun-Times reporter Joe Goddard traditionally shouted that from his press-box seat after the opening pitch of the first spring training game, alluding to the long, hard grind of a grizzled baseball writer facing 7 1/2 months of daily deadlines.
But the truth is no one feels tired when the Cactus League games begin, and meaningless exhibitions serve as an appetizer for the season ahead. It’s a time to celebrate the return of a game that means more to some fans than almost anything else in life, especially in times like these when the world seems to be spinning out of control.
Life is short and goes by so fast. Twenty-two years ago I told 5-year-old Darren Baker, son of then-Cubs manager Dusty Baker, that I’d cover him someday in a major league game. Darren Baker, now a Sox minor leaguer, came off the bench to play second base Friday and walked and scored a run. The wait was worth it.
Friday’s game began like the World Series before morphing into a typical spring training game with unknown players wearing uniform numbers in the 80s and 90s playing out the final innings.
“How many spring training games have a flyover?” Cubs starter Jameson Taillon asked. “That was pretty cool.”
Overkill? Maybe, but no one seemed to mind.
Some veterans, like Taillon, simply were looking to get in their work. Others, like Baker, were looking to turn some heads. Sox second base prospect Sam Antonacci smacked a two-run homer off Taillon in the second inning and tossed his bat 15 feet like a seasoned slugger while watching the ball sail over the right-field wall.
“Kind of reality hit there,” Antonacci said. “And being able to produce for my team felt good.”
Looks can be deceptive, especially on the first day. Antonacci, a 23-year-old who will play for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic, has only five home runs in 487 at-bats over two minor league seasons.
Spring training bat-tossing? It’s the thought that counts.
Bregman, who signed a five-year, $175 million deal in the offseason, went 0 for 2 in his Cubs debut. But his presence in the lineup has everyone dreaming big, and he was happy to play in front of an adoring crowd that used to boo him vociferously when he was a Houston Astros star.
“Super cool to have all that energy in the ballpark,” Bregman said. “Great start, let’s keep it going.”
Murakami, perhaps the most important Sox signing since Carlton Fisk, had an eventful day. Manager Will Venable briefly scratched him from the lineup, causing much consternation in the press box.
Was the new Japanese slugger already ailing? Could the Sox possibly start the season in a more Sox-ian fashion?
It turned out Murakami was stuck in traffic because of an accident on the highway during his trip from Glendale to Mesa.
“Oh, my god! Crash,” he said in English.
He made it to the ballpark in time to return to the starting lineup and went 2 for 4, including a two-run double that Suzuki, playing center field, lost in the sun.
“I loved him,” Suzuki said with a grin. “But after that pop-up, I hate him.”
There’s a thin line between love and hate, but Suzuki was willing to let bygones be bygones.
“We’re in Chicago, same city,” he said, turning serious. “He’s probably going to be there by himself, so if there is anything I can do to support him, I’m more than (willing) to.”
With the Sox leading 7-1 in the eighth, many Cubs fans left to beat the traffic. Rush hour starts at 1 p.m. on Fridays in Phoenix and lasts the rest of the day.
A “Let’s go, White Sox” chant erupted in Sloan Park and lasted a good minute. It was probably cathartic for Sox fans who spent the last three seasons waiting for a reason to believe — and a player like “Mune” to believe in.
No one expects miracles. But some well-played baseball on the South Side would be welcome.
The Cubs, meanwhile, always talk about making the playoffs this time of year, whether it’s wishful thinking or not. But last year’s playoff experience, and the offseason additions of Bregman and pitcher Edward Cabrera, have supercharged the vibe.
“Slowly it’s started to feel different here, my first year until now,” said Taillon, who joined the Cubs in 2023. “Just (the) culture. And culture is not necessarily rah-rah. It’s the work, the quiet confidence of the guys, understanding what they have to do.
“I felt that shift. It definitely feels different adding someone like Bregman. That legitimizes it a little bit. We’ve been building something here now, and then you add a piece like that and Cabrera and those sort of moves, and you definitely feel that shifting.”
October madness at Wrigley Field in 2025 was a feeling that lingered into the offseason. The players believe the seeds have been planted for a longer run.
“It gives you an intense desire to want to do it again,” manager Craig Counsell said. “The moments themselves aren’t biased as to you being young or old. It’s so much fun. It just makes you want it more, if there is such a thing. That’s what we’ve got working for us as much as anything.”
That is very true.