Pete Crow-Armstrong just can’t get out of his own way.
Over the offseason, the Chicago Cubs outfielder inexplicably made some derogatory comments about fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Made even more inexplicable by his own background.
In an interview with Chicago Magazine earlier in 2026, he said, “I love Chicago more and more. It’s just an incredible city. The people are great. They give a s***. 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.”
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Here’s the thing about that. It is, of course, wrong. The Dodgers have led the league in attendance every single season for the past decade. But PCA wasn’t done there.
“What I wish people could see through is, I’m not getting at die-hard Dodger fans,” he said. “They obviously exist, they’re out there. I grew up seeing those people, too, but it’s a see-me city, man. It’s a Lakers city where people show up to sit courtside and look good. And I view it the same way here.”
Here’s the thing about this: PCA is telling on himself. For those who don’t know, he grew up the son of two successful actors. Then attended Harvard-Westlake, an elite private school in Studio City where tuition currently runs nearly $55,000 per year, for seventh grade and up. The reason he thinks LA is a “courtside,” “see-me” city is because that’s who he is, and who he knows. He’s a rich kid who only ever knew other rich kids.
Well, that rich kid who trashed Dodgers fans had just about the worst imaginable day at Dodger Stadium on Saturday afternoon. And the fans, when they could tear themselves away from taking photos, loved it.
While the Cubs took the first game of the three-game series, the second quickly spiraled for Chicago — and PCA was right in the middle of it. He struck out leading off the top of the third inning. Then struck out again leading off the top of the fifth inning.
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The bottom of the fifth inning though, was the play of the game.
Alex Freeland drilled a high, deep fly ball to center field that sent PCA back to the warning track where he…well, made just about one of the worst reads or defensive plays you’ll ever see.
Makes you wonder if he was too distracted by all the photos being taken in the stands to pick up the ball.
With the Cubs now trailing 8-4, and the game on the line, Crow-Armstrong came up in the top of the sixth with one out and the bases loaded, meaning he represented the tying run. And then he promptly struck out for the third time, swinging over a slider from reliever Jack Dreyer.
He had one more at-bat though, a chance to redeem himself after a tough game. And in the top of the eighth inning, with a runner in scoring position, he struck out swinging on three straight pitches. That’s 0-4 with four strikeouts, nine swings and misses, and an awful defensive misplay. It’s hard to do much worse than that.
PCA was given a chance to clarify his comments during the series, and then promptly told the Los Angeles Times that he likes playing in front of his home fans better than road fans.
“Each fan base has their own personality,” he said. “And I was really just comparing my own two experiences: playing for the Cubs, and people showing up and enjoying it, and there’s just an air about the place; and then here, it is what it is like, maybe if I played here, it’d be different. But I don’t.”
Gee, what a brilliant observation. He gets treated better by Cubs fans than Dodgers fans because he plays for the Cubs. Has to be the first player to ever notice this, right?
And again, his observations are, to put it mildly, factually inaccurate. Here’s a photo from the Wrigley Field bleachers posted to Instagram just a few days ago.
Here’s another one, posted three days ago during the middle of an inning with players on the field.
This isn’t to pick on Cubs fans, though of course, Wrigley Field is far more of a tourist attraction for generic baseball fans who aren’t interested in the game at hand than Dodger Stadium. It’s to highlight that taking photos and looking at smartphones at sporting events has become a part of the modern gameday experience. And acting as though one fan base is worse in this regard than any other is absurd.
St. Louis Cardinals fans, for decades, were routinely described as the “best in baseball.” Now that the team is in a rebuilding phase, they’re in the bottom half of the league in attendance behind franchises with little-praised fan bases like the Arizona Diamondbacks. The San Diego Padres, never praised as an elite fan base, now sell out the vast majority of their games. Fans are fans. They like winning and don’t want to pay money to support losing.
Though maybe Pete Crow-Armstrong was too concerned about being “seen” with star patterns dyed into his hair to realize it.
