Column: Earning respect made a wacky All-Star Game a success for Chicago Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong

Chicago Tribune

5 days ago

ATLANTA — A few hours before Tuesday's All-Star Game at Truist Park, Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong was considering which bat to use.
Crow-Armstrong picked up a colorful model from his locker and showed it to the media. The bat included a cartoon of the Cubs' mascot, Clark the Cub, on the barrel. Using it would've been a marketing coup for the Ricketts' family that introduced the mascot a decade ago.
'The Bat King made this one,' Crow-Armstrong said of the maker. 'It's pretty cool, pretty impressive. It's got an earring in Clark's ear, too. Killed it. We'll see which one I'm going to use. Might be this one.'
But in the end, Crow-Armstrong said he was 'nervous' about using a new bat, so he stuck with a normal bat with no cartoon, no mascot and no earring.
It didn't seem to matter, as Crow-Armstrong doubled to right off New York Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodón in his first at-bat.
No Clark?
'Kind of just spaced,' he said afterward. 'Picked the bat I'd been using during the year, and it felt nice. I didn't want to change anything up. It worked, for that one at-bat.'
Crow-Armstrong went 1-for-2 in his All-Star debut, while teammate Kyle Tucker was 0-for-2 with a nice catch in left field.
The National League blew a 6-0 lead in the final three innings, watching the American League tie it on Steven Kwan's RBI infield hit off Edwin Díaz with two outs in the ninth. The game ended in a tie, which led to the first-ever swing-off between the two sides, an abbreviated Home Run Derby with six players.
No one in the crowd seemed to know what in the world was going on, and the p.a. announcer told them the rules — three players from each team would get three swings apiece, and the team with the most combined home runs would 'win' the game. Ex-Cub Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies hit three of the NL's four home runs for a 4-3 tiebreaker win, earning the game's MVP award.
What was left of the NL team celebrated near the dugout. Many of the players on both sides left the ballpark after they were removed from the game, as is commonplace in modern All-Star Games.
White Sox pitcher Shane Smith entered the game in the eighth inning with the American League trailing 6-4 and hit the first batter he faced, Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suárez, on the left hand. Smith then induced Washington Nationals pinch-hitter James Wood to hit into a force at second base before being removed.
Smith inadvertently played a part in the ending, since Suárez was designated to be a swing-off participant, but was removed from the NL trio due to his hand and replaced by Miami Marlins outfielder Kyle Stowers, who hit only one home run on his three swings. It didn't matter, thanks to Schwarber's swats.
Smith was told beforehand he'd be an 'emergency' option for American League manager Aaron Boone, and said he was OK with whatever happened.
'To be here is enough,' Smith said. 'To throw would be exceptional. I just want to make the most of my opportunity.'
Smith called the week an 'incredible' experience.
'Especially going outside (Monday) and playing catch with all the fans, sitting around (batting practice). And talking with (Garrett) Crochet, meeting (Jacob) deGrom and (Max) Fried,' he said. 'Not picking their brains too much, but just talking, trying to get to know them a little bit.'
In a game that was Crow-Armstrong's introduction on a national stage, everyone was waiting for him to make a web gem in his first All-Star Game. But PCA didn't have a fly ball hit to him in his five innings of defensive play. Still, he was satisfied watching Tucker make a beautiful, sliding catch in left field in the second inning, robbing Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh of a hit.
'Odd watching that guy run the other way for a ball,' Crow-Armstrong said.
Tucker said it felt 'weird' playing left for the first time in years, on the other side of Crow-Armstrong. He added that he needed to make the catch for Los Angeles Dodgers veteran Clayton Kershaw, who was basically selected to the roster as a career excellence award.
'With Clayton on the mound, I felt that was probably the one I should catch today,' Tucker said. 'It all worked out.'
Crow-Armstrong and Tucker also had some miscommunication on a fly ball by the Athletics' Jacob Wilson in the third, which occurred while Crow-Armstrong was mic'd up for the Fox TV broadcast. Tucker made the catch, with Crow-Armstrong backing off at the last second.
'I had the ear things in and I couldn't hear a lick of what was happening around me,' Crow-Armstrong said. 'I finally had the wherewithal to take a peek and so I backed off. I'm happy to leave that one to Kyle. I would've liked to have caught one in the air today. But, nah, all good.'
As for the hit, PCA said he was just glad to get one off Rodón.
'Finally,' he said. 'We had just faced him in New York this weekend and he diced against us. But it was nice to get that one out of the way, and nice to give an opportunity to someone else.'
In the end, the experience was more important than any individual moment. After the final interview, Crow-Armstrong hugged his mother and father in the tunnel outside the clubhouse.
'All day was kind of just sitting around and chopping it up, which was really cool,' Crow-Armstrong said. 'Getting to chat with Kershaw was definitely something that my younger self would've been pretty happy about.'
Kershaw laughed about meeting players like Crow-Armstrong who grew up watching him.
'A lot of people have been saying that,' Kershaw said. 'He seems awesome. You get little snippets of guys, so you don't know for sure. But he said hi to my kids, like a super nice guy. I love watching him play. He's a lot of fun out there. He kind of does everything well, which is pretty impressive.'
Schwarber said Crow-Armstrong reminds him a little of Javier Báez, his old Chicago teammate.
'Being able to talk to PCA a little bit, it does remind you of (Báez) a little bit,' Schwarber said. 'He does create havoc out there on the base paths and in the game in general — the fun things, like going first to third and stealing on some crazy (play), rounding third and going home on a slow roller. Those are things you'd remember Javy would do. Javy's got that baseball instinct, and I think (Crow-Armstrong) has got that, too.
'It's fun to see how the Chicago faithful have kind of taken him in and lifted him up to be that type of player.'
There were no heroic moments for Crow-Armstrong, but he was happy to get a hit and feel like he was one of the gang.
'The respect level from everybody was super cool,' he said.
There's no doubt there will be more All-Star Games in Crow-Armstrong's future. But like everything else that's good in life, you always remember the first time. And with an ending that confused almost everyone in the ballpark, it was a night that no one would soon forget.