Chicago baseball fans, rejoice!
Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Monday the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox could have fans in the stands for MLB Opening Day 2021.
The Cubs and White Sox will be able to host at 20 percent capacity, with the potential for increases later in the spring and summer:
“As a diehard sports fan myself, I’m personally excited to have Chicago take its first, cautious steps toward safely reopening our beloved baseball stadiums to fans this season,” Lightfoot said in a release, via Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun-Times.
“We’re able to do that thanks to the commitment of our city’s two great baseball franchises who continue to work in close partnership with Chicago’s public health officials to find solutions that are not only safe, but offer a path forward toward safely increasing stadium capacity as we move closer into our COVID-19 recovery.”
The two Windy City franchises appear to be heading in very different directions with under a month until the 2021 season begins.
For the White Sox, the arrow is pointing up. The South Siders earned their first playoff berth since 2008 in 2020. They have a young and outstanding core of young position players, and they bolstered the pitching staff by acquiring frontline starter Lance Lynn and signing top relief pitcher Liam Hendriks in the offseason.
The Cubs are in a transitory period. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer took over for Theo Epstein and jumpstarted the transition by trading ace Yu Darvish to the San Diego Padres. Meanwhile, all of Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo will be free agents next winter.
Still, both franchises have dreams of October baseball. Fans will surely be excited to head to Wrigley Field and Guaranteed Rate Field when the season gets underway.
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