Cubs rooting for Sox rebuild to work

Some of the biggest believers in the White Sox rebuild weren’t sitting in the stands at Sloan Park on Sunday for their Cactus League game against the Cubs.

Believe it or not, they were perched in the Cubs clubhouse, a place you don’t expect to hear kind words about an opposing team.

“I’m not here to rub anyone the wrong way,” Cubs outfielder Kyle Schwarber said in a hushed tone. “But I think the White Sox have a lot of good things coming.”

It wasn’t apparent early on Sunday afternoon in their first meeting of 2019.

Sox starter Manny Banuelos walked four batters in the first inning and reliever Juan Minaya served up a three-run home run to Kris Bryant and failed to retire any of the six men he faced during an eight-run second, giving the Cubs a quick 9-0 lead.

The Sox’s misadventures weren’t going to make much of a difference in the long run, though it gave Cubs fans reason to crow for one day at least, just as Sox fans would if the shoe was on the other foot.

We wouldn’t have it any other way. Thanks to good parenting, many Chicagoans have been rooting against the team on the other side of town since they were potty-trained. It’s part of their DNA, and something they no doubt will one day pass on to their own children.

But it doesn’t work that way with most Cubs personnel, at least not those who have no beef with the South Siders. Joe Maddon said he’d like to see Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf succeed with his rebuild.

“Absolutely I want to see it work,” Maddon said. “I love that, I think it’d be wonderful for the city to have two playoff-caliber teams at the same time. It’s great. It’s exciting. I don’t wish poorly on anybody. I know Mr. Reinsdorf now a little bit and I really like the man a lot. I wish them well. I think they’ve done a lot of really good things.

“What they’ve done this year, combined with the young players they have, if they pitch it they’re going to be fine, and they’ve normally pitched [well] in the past. Absolutely I’d like to see them do well.”

Ditto, Sox Manager Rick Renteria said.

Renteria said he also hopes the Cubs do well despite being fired by the Cubs after one season and replaced by Maddon.

“Maybe we can become an envy of the sports world while having some great competing ballclubs in all facets,” he said.

Sure, Renteria could have been at the helm of the Cubs when they turned the corner in 2015. Instead he’s in charge of another rebuild. But he said he holds no grudges and enjoys seeing old friends from the North Side.

“As it stands for me, this is the job I have, we happen to compete against each other in two different cities, whether it’s here in Arizona or Chicago,” Renteria said. “But when it comes to the game, the game is the game. We go out there and try and do our job.”

Bryant, who defended Sox outfielder Nicky Delmonico for claiming Cubs fans were the most “annoying” in baseball, said everyone needs to lighten up a bit when it comes to hating on the other team. It is, after all, entertainment, not politics.

“I root for a good, healthy rivalry, our fans going crazy when we play them at our place and their fans really wanting to beat us there,” he said. “I hate to see when it turns personal or super hostile. I mean, this is just a baseball game. Can we just enjoy two Chicago teams going at it?”

Easy for him to say. Bryant doesn’t have to work in an office with Sox fans, who enjoyed watching the Cubs collapse last October.

Maddon said he runs into Sox fans on Rush Street once in a while, adding, “I don’t often engage” with them.

Has he ever had any issues? “No, it’s always been good, good stuff,” he said. “I think there is mutual respect right there. My conversations have been normally good. Even one of the dudes that parks the car for me in my apartment building is all White Sox, but he’s very, very respectful [to me], as I am of him.”

Schwarber agreed Sox fans have been nice to him on the street, though he conceded someone did throw a plastic beer bottle at him a few years ago during a Cubs-Sox game at Sox Park. Schwarber said he hopes they don’t throw beer at him again this year when they meet July 6 and 7 on the South Side.

“But if they do, I want them to be empty,” he said with a laugh. “I was a little disappointed it was half-full.”