This is how close Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman have become in just a few short months.
“He’s invited me to his house a few times,’’ Crow-Armstrong said, “I’ve spent time with his kids.’’
No, he’s not yet Uncle Pete or Uncle PCA. Knox is closing in on 4, Bennett just turned 1.
“Mostly he calls me PCA or Pete-Crow Armstrong,’’ he said of the toddler. “But anytime [Bregman] wants me to babysit, I’ll do it.’’
Bregman is a 32-year-old dad from Albuquerque, a budding entrepreneur whose district attorney father, Sam Bregman, is a Democratic candidate for governor of New Mexico.
Crow-Armstrong is 24 years old, single, a Southern California kid whose parents were both in the movie and TV industry.
What has drawn them together, Bregman said, is how much the two of them talk baseball. “He’s a throwback,’’ Bregman said. “He loves the game, he works his tail off, and we have a lot of similarities in that regard. So we talk baseball all the time.’’
Crow-Armstrong is not sure he’s a throwback. “I was that way back with my boys when we were growing up,’’ he said. “But we’re both maniacs.’’
One thing they agree on: The Cubs are winning and have the second-best record in the NL, even though neither Bregman nor Crow-Armstrong have gone off yet offensively.
“He may go off any time,’’ Crow-Armstrong said. “He hit three balls [Friday night] that combined to go over 300 miles an hour.’’
The explosion, when it comes, may have to wait a bit. On Saturday night, the White Sox were acting like throwbacks themselves, Bill Veeck’s South Side Hitmen of distant memory. Miguel Vargas, Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery made like Zisk, Gamble and Soderholm from a half-century ago, with four home runs and seven runs in the first five innings against Jameson Taillon. Two of the home runs were hit by the Japanese slugger, his first multi-homer game, giving him 17 for the season.
When Andrew Benintendi, who had homered just twice this season, took Taillon deep to lead off the Sox sixth, Cubs manager Craig Counsell mercifully dismissed his veteran right-hander.
But consider this: In the last 27 games entering play Saturday night, Bregman has two home runs and driven in a total of five runs, no more than one in any single game, and yet the Cubs are 21-6 in that span. What happens when Bregman starts to hit like the guy who has averaged 27 home runs and 94 RBI in a 162-game season?
“Hopefully I’ll heat up and we’ll go 21-6 again,’’ said Bregman, who beat out an infield hit and roped a double Saturday night, giving him 10 hits in his last 29 at-bats, a .345 clip.
“I don’t feel like we’ve played our best, obviously, but we’ve had different guys stepping up on different days. I think Ian [Happ] has probably shouldered a lot of the load, really, for us offensively to start this year, hitting the ball out of the ballpark, taking his walks, just putting together quality at-bat after quality at-bat. So hopefully a few more of us can get hot like that. We have a good ball club, obviously a lot of guys one through nine, and then obviously pitching and good defense. Just some complete wins, getting production from everywhere.’’
Crow-Armstrong recalls a conversation he had with Counsell when he was first summoned to the big leagues at the end of the 2023 season, in September. “He told me, I just want you here to play center field,’’ Crow-Armstrong said.
But by the All-Star break of 2025, he had morphed into more than just a pretty glove, forging the cult of PCA by putting up 25 home runs and 27 stolen bases by the All-Star break. The acrobatic center fielder? We see him on a nightly basis. That chant-inducing batsman? We haven’t seen much of him, yet, in 2026. Only occasional glimpses.
In 383 at-bats since then, not a small sample size, Crow-Armstrong is hitting .225 with 10 home runs.
“I haven’t gone off yet, either,’’ Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s been hard, it’s been very difficult, but all you can do is continue to work. Alex, he takes so many swings, it’s exhausting. He watches so much video. Me, I get in my swings, and take my game to the field. I’m going to strike out and chase, I know that. That probably won’t change until I have more experience in this game. There are still things I can take pride in. My defense, My walks. I have almost half as many walks as I had all last season. My base-running. But it is hard. You just try to work through your struggles.’’
Bregman said he tries to provide a sounding board for his struggling teammate. Is he the type to get discouraged?
“No, he works,’’ Bregman said. “He just puts his head down and works. Obviously, he knows what he’s capable of, and he just puts his head down and gets after it.’’
And what has Bregman done to try to be back to his vintage self?
“I obviously look at my swing,’’ he said, “but also game plan, basically against the pitchers I’m going to face, try and be super prepared. When I’m super prepared like that, I feel like it simplifies the game for me.’’
It will come. So says Bregman. So says Crow-Armstrong, who homered on his last at-bat, in the ninth inning. A fandom awaits.