Next All-Star stop: Wrigley Field, where the last Home Run Derby was so punchless it’s truly crazy

PHILADELPHIA — It wasn’t White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami’s swing that was off in the Home Run Derby on Monday; it was his timing.

Murakami, whose nine homers weren’t enough to get him past the first round in an event won by the Cardinals’ Jordan Walker, would have been better off competing in 1990.

That year, the last time the All-Star Game was at Wrigley Field, a hilariously punchless Derby produced a grand total of five homers — three of them by the Cubs’ Ryne Sandberg, who won it. Leaving every ball short of the ivy were Ken Griffey Jr., Jose Canseco, Cecil Fielder, Darryl Strawberry and Bobby Bonilla.

If you’re thinking the wind might have had something to do with it, you could not be more correct. Thirty-six years ago, after 30,000 fans witnessed next to nothing while ballhawks’ gloves on the streets beyond the bleachers stayed empty, the Sun-Times’ Ray Sons wrote it was punishment from the baseball gods for the installation of lights at the North Side shrine.

If we’re lucky enough to greet July of next year without a fight between owners and players having hijacked the baseball season, the All-Star Game will finally be back at Wrigley.

‘‘It’s going to be crazy,’’ Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong said. ‘‘Obviously, Wrigleyville is fun Monday through Sunday, so I’m interested to see how packed it is, how hard it ends up being trying to get around. But knowing [chairman Tom Ricketts] and our front office and the people that will probably have a big hand in planning that, I’m sure it’ll be great. Wrigley’s a beautiful ballpark, and I’m glad it’ll be on display for everyone to see.’’

But there’s also a Derby to think about.

‘‘I hope the wind is blowing out, though,’’ Crow-Armstrong said. ‘‘If we get a bad wind day, the Derby will be interesting.’’

The Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber was the runner-up Monday at Citizens Bank Park as well as in 2018, when, representing the Cubs, he fell just short in Washington.

‘‘The Derby at Wrigley? Man, hopefully the wind is blowing out,’’ Schwarber said.

Would he want to participate?

‘‘I don’t know,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ll see about that.’’

And Crow-Armstrong?

‘‘Maybe I will, just with it being at home and everything,’’ he said. ‘‘But it is a tiring couple of hours, and I don’t quite know if my swing is built for that.’’

The Shohei goes on

Crow-Armstrong is second to Dodgers megastar Shohei Ohtani in National League MVP odds, which is not to imply the odds are even remotely close. Of course they aren’t.

But is there any chance of an MVP upset over Ohtani, who pulled out of the Midsummer Classic to focus on getting treatment for an ailing knee? Any chance at all?

‘‘Man, I would love to dethrone him, but I don’t know how you do it,’’ Crow-Armstrong said. ‘‘Unless I go to one of the pitching labs in the offseason. Yeah, I’ll go become a closer or something and see how that helps my odds. But that guy’s a freak.’’

Walker’s wish

The Derby victory for Walker was wonderful, in large part because the $1 million first prize exceeded his 2026 salary of $799,400, which is a hair above the major-league minimum.

But it also filled him with hope that his performance would inspire many a Black youngster to pick up a bat and swing for the fences.

‘‘I would love to see more Black players in MLB, for sure, and just overall playing baseball,’’ Walker told the Sun-Times.

According to Opening Day active rosters, the league is 6.8% Black this season — a tiny uptick from 2025 but still much lower than it used to be.

After winning the Derby, Walker found himself thinking back to his early baseball days at Belvedere Park outside Atlanta, where he played on an all-Black team his grandfather, the coach, named the Black Yankees.

At his locker before the All-Star Game, Walker had to chuckle at that name.

‘‘But it was so much fun,’’ he said. ‘‘I just want them to know baseball is also a sport for them to play, that it’s fun, too. And I want to see more representation.’’

High praise for a non-All-Star

So who’s the best defensive shortstop out there these days?

A Chicago reporter put the question to the Nationals’ CJ Abrams, the NL starter at the position.

‘‘There’s a lot of great shortstops,’’ he said. ‘‘[The Cubs’] Dansby Swanson is up there, for sure.’’

Oh, yeah? Tell us more.

‘‘All around, he’s a great player,’’ Abrams said. ‘‘Defensively, the way he gets to the ball, his range. He doesn’t make any mistakes, really. I’ve never seen him make a mistake.’’

Closer encounter

Ten years ago, then-Cubs manager Joe Maddon ran his closer into the ground — and then some — in pursuit of a World Series title. Somehow, Aroldis Chapman survived it and, all this time later, is still effective enough to be a 19-save All-Star with the Red Sox.

‘‘I just kept working and dedicating myself to my career,’’ Chapman said. ‘‘There’s been good years and bad years, but my mentality stayed the same, and this is the result of that.’’

Former teammates Anthony Rizzo and David Ross have reached out to Chapman about having him on their ‘‘Lovable Reunion’’ podcast, but he said that’s going to have to wait.