After having a half-filled plastic bottle of beer thrown at him during a City Series game on the South Side a few years ago, then-Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Schwarber joked he should’ve picked the beer up and shotgunned it.
That probably would’ve sealed the Schwarber legend in Chicago and forced Cubs management to keep him in blue pinstripes for life.
Instead, Schwarber returned to Wrigley Field Monday with the curly W of the Washington Nationals and received second billing to Jon Lester in a homecoming of two former Cubs champions.
Lester will be honored with his own highlight reel and gift from the Cubs before Tuesday’s game, and Schwarber will no doubt get more ovations as the series goes on. Since Dexter Fowler’s return in 2017, the only member of the 2016 champs to hear booing at Wrigley Field was Miguel Montero, during a 2017 trip with the Toronto Blue Jays.
“I really don’t care,” Montero said after. “They cheered a lot of big hits when I was here, and whether they hate me or love me, they’re going to remember me forever.”
The same can be said for Schwarber, who left the Cubs in a less than desirable manner but was welcomed back like a conquering hero.
Cubs fans gave him a standing ovation before Monday’s game when his highlight reel was played on the video board, and again when he homered in the fourth inning off starter Adbert Alzolay. The ball was thrown back onto the field, of course, because rule are rules whether they’re unwritten or not.
Manager David Ross presented Schwarber with an innings window (12) from the old Wrigley scoreboard, a ceremony we’ve seen many times over the last few years with different returning players and various presenters.
And Cubs players and staff, from his old teammates to longtime clubhouse man Otis Hellmann, welcomed him back with pregame hugs and in-game treats, namely a Twix bar that Kris Bryant left in left field between innings.
“Definitely ate a Twix bar out on the field, and it led to a hit,” Schwarber said of his 407-foot, two-run homer to left-center. “I might have to eat a Twix (Tuesday). It was pretty good.”
It was a Little League kind of gesture that was made-for-Twitter and showed the kind of bond Schwarber had with his teammates.
“I looked at him like, ‘You crazy, man?’” Schwarber said. “It was a funny gesture and actually he texted me after the game and I sent him a shout back. … You form bonds from what we did and being able to play together for so long. Gave me a good little jab there.”
Schwarber theorized “the Twix calmed my nerves down or something like that,” opening the door to an endorsement deal. He has a future in marketing after baseball, or at least a job with Bryzzo Inc.
This is the start of the second act of Schwarber’s career. His first act that included a home run that literally and figuratively became part of Wrigley Field history, a comeback from a regular season-ending injury in the 2016 World Series that evoked memories of Willis Reed and Babe Ruth, a return trip to the minors the following spring, and various moon shots locally known as “Schwarbombs.”
But it all ended in relative silence last December after the season without fans. The shock value of Schwarber’s departure was lessened by former president Theo Epstein’s own departure a couple of weeks earlier.
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After hitting .188 with 11 home runs in the pandemic-shortened, 60-game season, Schwarber was non-tendered by the Cubs in what was seen as a cost-cutting move. He was expected to get around $8 million in arbitration.
The Cubs eventually signed Joc Pederson to a one-year, $7 million deal that includes a $2.5 million buyout of $10 million option in 2022, so they really only saved around $1 million. That suggests the decision by president Jed Hoyer was more about the belief Schwarber would not return to form than paring the payroll. Hoyer could’ve kept Schwarber and gotten something in return in July if Schwarber’s 2021 numbers were comparable to 2019, when he hit 38 home runs with 92 RBI and had an .871 OPS.
The switch from one left-handed hitting slugger to another means the offensive numbers from Schwarber and Pederson will be compared all season long. Both got off to slow starts and endured stints on the injured list, but overall, Schwarber has the early advantage with six home runs and a .750 OPS to Pederson’s one homer and .674 OPS.
Schwarber mistakenly said Monday night he had been designated for assignment by the Cubs. Being non-tendered was the same kind of slap in the face.
“The end result of how I obviously departed from the Cubs wasn’t ideal,” he said. “Obviously you want to go out there and you want to finish your tenure with your team and move on from there, and whatever happens happens (in free agency).
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“It’s not a ‘hate’ thing or anything like that. It’s more going out there and proving something to yourself.”
That’s been a recurring theme in Schwarber’s career, from trying to prove he could be a major-league catcher to proving he’s more than an all-or-nothing hitting outfielder.
Back in 2014, I went down to Florida to watch Schwarber play at Class-A Daytona when he was still considered a catching prospect. He grew up near Cincinnati wanting to be the next Johnny Bench, but after meeting Epstein during a Cubs’ scouting trip at school in Indiana, Schwarber knew he wanted to be in Chicago.
“It’s funny how it kind of works out now,” he said that September day. “I want to be a Cub. As cool as it would’ve been to be a Red, deep down I really wanted to be a Cub, just from that conversation — that and the rebuilding process.”
Epstein said in 2014 he was impressed by Schwarber’s “big personality, genuine nature, advanced understanding of hitting, passion for the game, leadership qualities and blue-collar work ethic.” In other words, the whole package.
“He’s a really good player who other players want to be around,” Epstein said. “It was easy to project him being not only in the middle of our lineup someday but also in the middle of our clubhouse dynamic.”
That proved prophetic, though no one could’ve guessed both Schwarber and Epstein would be gone only four seasons after the 2016 World Series.
Gone, but surely not forgotten. Schwarber’s most memorable Schwarbomb — his mammoth home run in Game 4 of the 2015 NL Division Series win over the St. Louis Cardinals — remains under a Plexiglas case on top of the right field video board where it landed.
The ball has survived heat waves, blizzards, polar vortexes, and now, it’s outlasting the pandemic.
“It’s really cool, especially for how much history this field has,” Schwarber said Monday. “I remember when they first asked about it, I was like, ‘If you guys don’t want to do anything with it, I’ll take it. If you guys want to leave it here and I can leave a little mark here on Wrigley Field with all the history here this field has.’
“I think it’s awesome. It’s an honor for it to still be up there.”
