Sale likely to be ripped — er, ribbed
When word of White Sox left-hander Chris Sale’s uniform-slashing tantrum Saturday filtered through the Cubs’ clubhouse Sunday, some players privately were rooting for a throwback-jersey event on his scheduled day to pitch this week, just to see what would happen.
One joke making the rounds that morning went like this:
‘‘You know what the White Sox did with all the other throwback jerseys that didn’t get cut, right?’’ ‘‘No, what?’’ ‘‘They put them on Sale.’’ Even manager Joe Maddon got into the act when he mentioned in one of his answers to the media that morning how something ‘‘cuts across the fabric of what you’re trying to do, no pun intended.’’
He then spent several seconds regaining his composure before completing his answer.
Sox officials were said not to be amused.
All of which leads to Sale’s start Thursday at Wrigley Field, where he returns from a five-game suspension for destroying those throwback uniforms and where he can expect the first — and maybe the worst — of what’s expected to be two months of jersey-related catcalls from grandstand cut-ups.
‘‘Yeah, people may crack on it for a little while,’’ Cubs reliever Joe Nathan said Wednesday, ‘‘and the fans will probably give it to him a little bit here and there. But I think that would just die down.’’
For what it’s worth, Sale got sympathy from some in the Cubs’ clubhouse.
‘‘To be honest, those uniforms are brutal,’’ second baseman Ben Zobrist said of the Sox’ big-collared 1976 jerseys. ‘‘Who would want to wear a collar on their game uniform? Especially if it’s a pitcher that’s throwing and every motion they’re going to feel something different.
‘‘I wouldn’t have cut up the jerseys over it, but I understand he wouldn’t want to wear that pitching.’’
“I guess they were really uncomfortable,’’ Nathan said. ‘‘That’s all I can say.’’
Heyward struggles
As $184 million outfielder Jason Heyward’s seasonlong struggles at the plate approach August, he took his daily batting-cage work with hitting coach John Mallee into the sun for another intense session a few hours before the game.
‘‘This guy’s hit into some bad luck,’’ said Maddon, who said the goal is to get Heyward to hit the ball in the air more. ‘‘Yeah, there’s been some ground balls. But he’s had a lot of well-struck balls that have been caught, and with that goes your confidence.’’
Heyward was 3-for-27 in the last week before drawing a seventhinning walk Wednesday.
Star gazing
Among the luminaries attending the game at Wrigley Field were just-retired Bears cornerback Charles ‘‘Peanut’’ Tillman (doing seventh-inning-stretch duties), Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh (first pitch), former Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and new Bulls guard Dwyane Wade and his actress wife, Gabrielle Union.
Guillen, who routinely ripped the disrepair — ‘‘rats as big as pigs’’ — and outdated ‘‘amenities’’ at Wrigley, ran into Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts before the game.
‘‘He said, ‘Look what you made me do here,’ ’’ Guillen said, gesturing to the video boards and other updates.
Talked out
Ricketts wasn’t as talkative with the media, declining an interview request.
‘‘I think we’ve talked enough this week,’’ said Ricketts, whose communication with the media this week consisted of a prepared statement about looking into Aroldis Chapman’s domesticviolence past before signing off on his acquisition Monday.