The next time the Chicago Cubs step into Chavez Ravine, don’t expect a warm Hollywood welcome for Pete Crow-Armstrong.
The 23-year-old All-Star, a Los Angeles native with industry bloodlines and a Little League past in Sherman Oaks, decided this week to take a shot at his hometown fans, the two-time defending World Series champion fans.
In a profile with Chicago Magazine, Crow-Armstrong drew a line in the ivy-covered dirt between Cubs fans and Dodgers fans.
“[Cubs fans] actually give a s***,” he said. “They aren’t just baseball fans who go to the game like Dodgers fans to take pictures and whatever. They are paying attention. They care.”
That wasn’t a slip of the tongue. This wasn’t placed on a tee for him to take a shot at Dodgers fans by the author of the article. It wasn’t a leading question. It was PCA who inserted Dodgers fans into the chat.
And in a city that has filled Dodger Stadium with more than 4 million fans — and is rocking every night from April through October — the comment lands like a brushback pitch headed for the chin.
Here’s the twist: Crow-Armstrong grew up in L.A. The son of actors Matthew John Armstrong and Ashley Crow, who are known for their roles in the show “Heroes.” And have starred in films like “Minority Report,” “Little Big League,” and “The Good Son.” (Ashley Crow played the mom in “Little Big League“).
Crow-Armstrong attended games at Dodger Stadium. He played Little League under the Southern California sun. Yet, as he wrote in The Players’ Tribune, his father gave him two rules: never root for the Dodgers, never root for the Cardinals. Maybe that has something to do with it.
Fine. Baseball loyalties are inherited like eye color. But questioning the baseball IQ of Dodgers fans? That’s out of bounds.
This is the same fan base that lives and dies with pitch sequencing, that debates bullpen leverage over sushi in the third inning, the fans that started Fernandomania, and turned Clayton Kershaw into a folk hero.
The same fan base that will circle April 24–26 in red ink when the Cubs arrive to town.
Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters
California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn
California Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X
California Post Opinion
California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!
California Post App: Download here!
Home delivery: Sign up here!
Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!
Crow-Armstrong’s comments will play beautifully on the North Side, where edge and defiance are currency. After his antics in the second-half of last season, his comments will endear himself to Cubs fans.
But baseball has a long memory. And Chavez Ravine? It doesn’t forget its own.
