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  "path": "/cubs/2026/05/17/crosstown-rivalry-gets-spicy-thanks-to-pete-crow-armstrong-and-fan",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-18T02:57:46.943Z",
  "site": "https://chicago.suntimes.com",
  "tags": [
    "@JesseRogersESPN",
    "@JomboyMedia"
  ],
  "textContent": "<p>It mattered little to her — we’ll call her The Woman in White — that from where she and her friends were sitting in The Patio, the grass-level section beyond right-center field at Rate Field, she nearly had witnessed another catch for the ages by Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.</p><p>For TWIW, this was not a moment made to celebrate greatness, but to taunt it. It was the whole reason she had planned to hold her engagement party in this spot, a young woman from Northwest Indiana who now lives in the city. She is a White Sox fan.</p><p>“Our goal the entire time we planned this,’’ she said, “was we knew PCA was in center field and we’re like, we’re going to heckle him at some point.’’</p><p>Her fiancé is a Cubs fan. He was the guy wearing the blue Cubs jersey. Evidently, he didn’t have a say in the planning.</p><p>Welcome to Ground Zero, literally, of the crosstown rivalry, 2026.</p><p>Crow-Armstrong once again had defied space and gravity and logic and leaped as high as he could against the center-field wall Sunday, in an attempt to take extra bases away from Sox slugger Miguel Vargas in the fifth inning.</p><p>“If Pete can’t catch that ball,’’ teammate Michael Conforto would say afterward, “there isn’t a center fielder alive who could.’’</p><p>The people who measure these things say there was zero chance of Crow-Armstrong making the catch. Crow-Armstrong has defied those odds before. Not this time.</p><p>“I missed the ball,’’ he said. “I don’t know, I have to watch the replays, but I missed the ball.’’</p><div class=\"Enhancement\" data-align-center><div class=\"Enhancement-item\"> <div class=\"ExternalContent-wrapper\" > <div class=\"TweetUrl\"> <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\"Some lady decided to start talking shit and I felt the need to say it back.\" -Pete Crow-Armstrong<br><br>(via <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JesseRogersESPN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JesseRogersESPN</a>) <a href=\"https://t.co/a0aigs6UrK\">pic.twitter.com/a0aigs6UrK</a></p>— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JomboyMedia/status/2056140437816046071?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 17, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script> </div> </div> </div></div><p>When he returned to earth, he wound up in a sitting position, facing the Patio, and remained there for a few moments. Because he had made contact with the wall, someone wondered if he had gotten shaken up on the play. That was not the case.</p><p>“That was me, processing the fact that I missed the ball,’’ he said.</p><p>He was not left alone with his thoughts for long. The Woman in White saw to that.</p><p>“Right when he was up at the fence, we’re like, ‘This is our prime opportunity, OK?’ ’’ she said. “So we just got booing him. I said he sucked, and then he said words that I don’t want to repeat, you shouldn’t say to a woman. And then both my brothers were up there against the fence, too.’’</p><p>And where was the fiancé, the Cubs fan?</p><p>“He tried to calm me,’’ she said, “but then he heard what PCA said to me, so he started booing him, too.’’</p><p>After the game, PCA acknowledged the exchange.</p><p>“Some lady decided to start talking [expletive], and [I decided] to say it back,’’ he said.</p><p>While one older member of the engagement party enthusiastically shared the full text of PCA’s reply — and, yes, not the type of thing you’ll hear on Marquee Sports Network — the Cubs fan decided that any further discussion was best avoided.</p><p>“Let’s call it,’’ he said to a visitor, making it clear no names would be shared. “This is more attention than we want to get out of this.’’</p><p>Fair enough. One added note: The wedding is still on for October 2027.</p><p>And so, too, is this rivalry, which held nearly 120,000 fans of both persuasions in thrall all weekend. Before the series, PCA greeted the rivalry with a figurative shrug. But that all changed Sunday.</p><p>The missed catch on the Vargas double was a mere footnote to the high drama of late-inning home runs: Tristan Peters’ three-run homer in the eighth to put the Sox ahead, Conforto’s three-run homer to answer in the ninth, Edgar Quero walking it off with a first-pitch, two-run homer off Cubs reliever Ryan Rolison in the 10th.</p><p>“A terrible feeling,’’ Rolison said.</p><p>But for the rivalry, new life.</p><p>“The electricity was unbelievable,’’ said Conforto, who has played in the Mets-Yankees and Dodgers-Giants rivalries and said this was comparable, with fewer F-bombs than in New York.</p><p>“We gave the city something to be excited about,’’ PCA said after packing his Caleb Williams Bears jersey into his duffel bag. “[The White Sox] got that fight in them, too. They were kind of up in our stuff all series. First game, they were just fighting. Yesterday, they came out swinging and made a lot of stuff happen.</p><p>“It’s fun playing against a young team like that. I feel like I can relate to a lot of those guys, and I appreciate how a lot of them play.</p><p>“So I mean, it’s a good ballclub, and they’re playing good baseball. So like I said, it’s good for the city. They’ve got two good teams going.’’<br></p>",
  "title": "Crosstown rivalry gets spicy thanks to Pete Crow-Armstrong and fan",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-18T03:23:21.405Z"
}