It’s not a problem exclusive to Major League Baseball, Chicago, the Cubs or the White Sox.
But is there a baseball fan on either side of town who is OK with a spectator making a vile and disparaging remark about Pete Crow-Armstrong’s mother every time the Cubs star came to the on-deck circle during Sunday’s game between the Cubs and White Sox?
It was that, as much as a female spectator in the ground-level Patio section taunting him after he narrowly missed making a great catch, that caused Crow-Armstrong, he said, to react profanely to the woman.
“I popped,’’ he said.
It was only last June that the White Sox banned a 22-year-old man from Rate Field after he brought Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte to tears by making derogatory comments about Marte’s late mother. MLB also banned the spectator indefinitely from all MLB facilities.
In that instance, Arizona manager Torey Lovullo flagged security and pointed out the guilty party. Security officials immediately escorted him out of his seat. It became a national story, and the White Sox were widely praised for their actions.
“BASEBALL IS FAMILY—THE WHITE SOX COMMUNITY SUPPORTS KETEL MARTE” the White Sox posted on their video board the next day.
Last Sunday at Rate Field, those family ties were shredded once again by the spectator who evidently thought the price of a ticket entitled him to insult Crow-Armstrong’s mother with a highly offensive term. Had Crow-Armstrong or anyone else reported the matter to Sox security, their track record suggests that spectator would have been led off the premises as well.
But Crow-Armstrong made no public comment about the miscreant’s conduct until after Tuesday night’s game with the Brewers, the day after MLB informed him he had been fined $5,000 for “comments made to a fan” — the woman sitting in the Patio section.
Did her booing and taunting, “You suck,” rise to grounds for ejection? Probably not, in a sport in which entire sections of fans chant (Fill in the blank) sucks.”
Crow-Armstrong on Monday night said he regretted the profanities he directed at the woman, but on Tuesday said, “It wasn’t just her. It was her and a compilation of getting my mom called a whore on deck for five straight at-bats. And then I popped.’’
Jed Hoyer, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations, addressed the issue on the Rahimi & Harris & Grote show on The Score on Wednesday afternoon.
“He’s a great kid,’’ Hoyer said, “He’s a 24-year-old who’s pretty emotional and he obviously did something he regrets.’’
Hoyer said he had spoken with Crow-Armstrong but chose to keep their conversation private.
“Hopefully this is a learning experience for him. This is not going to be the last time that people heckle him. He’s a star in a major city. That’s difficult, given his age and those things. I think it’s a hard thing to handle, but he has to learn how to handle it. He has to learn from his experience. I think he will, but I don’t think it’s representative of who Pete is. He’s a wonderful kid and a great teammate.”
On Wednesday afternoon, long before first pitch, Crow-Armstrong visited with a group of third graders taking a guided tour of the ballpark, relaxed and amiable, cheerfully answering the children’s questions. The ballclub had thought about canceling the engagement, fretting that some might have seen it as performative, even though it had been scheduled weeks before.
“Pete is far and away the best player on the team when it comes to dealing with fans, especially the kids,’’ said one club employee who has witnessed Crow-Armstrong’s interactions on multiple occasions, many out of sight of the public at large, “Every day, eight days a week.’’
Don’t go down, Moises
Of all the slumping Cubs, none has endured a longer dry spell than Moises Ballesteros. In his last 15 games dating to April 28, Ballesteros has just 3 hits in his last 49 at-bats, with a home run and 4 RBI. His slash line: .061/.130/.122/.252.
Shooting blanks
The Cubs were shut out for the sixth time this season. They were shut out a total of 10 times last season.
