Pete Crow-Armstrong on Winning Over Chicago Cubs Fans: 'They Know Ball'

PCA opens up about Cubs fans, his California roots, and why Wrigley Field feels like the perfect place to build his career.

When Pete Crow-Armstrong talks about Chicago, it doesn’t sound like a player giving the polite, media-trained answer. It sounds like someone who understands exactly where he is.

“They know ball,” he says of Cubs fans on the latest episode of Boardroom Talks, repeating it for emphasis. “They know ball.”

For Crow-Armstrong, that knowledge — and the passion that comes with it — is what makes playing at Wrigley Field different. He didn’t arrive in Chicago with immediate stardom. His start in the big leagues came with the usual turbulence young players endure: adjustments at the plate, learning a new clubhouse, finding rhythm under the bright lights. But through it all, he says, the fans never turned on him.

“I didn’t have the easiest, best start to my career, but they never put me down,” he explains. “They show up to these games during the week, on the weekends, and it’s a party.”

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That party atmosphere is part of what makes Wrigley Field feel less like a ballpark and more like a stage. The ivy, the packed bleachers, the hum of anticipation, Crow-Armstrong calls it the premier place to play. And for him, it carries something deeper than just baseball history.

He grew up in California, but his baseball heart was planted firmly in Chicago. His father, raised in the suburbs, was a diehard Cubs fan, the kind who had the game on every day and could recite stats without hesitation. “He was a nerd when it came to baseball, all things Cubs,” Crow-Armstrong says with a smile. The games were background noise in their home, a constant soundtrack to his childhood.

So when he pulls on a Cubs uniform now, it feels bigger than a career milestone. It feels personal.

“It feels a little bit like divine timing,” he says. “Chicago’s the best place to do it, though. It’s only been love.”

That love extends beyond the Friendly Confines. Crow-Armstrong has immersed himself in the city’s broader sports culture, attending four Bears games and even getting on the field. Building relationships with players and staff in the Bears organization has added another layer to his Chicago experience.

With a talented young core on the North Side and renewed energy across the city’s sports landscape, Crow-Armstrong sees momentum building. For a kid who once watched Cubs games from afar with his dad, it feels like destiny unfolding in real time, under the lights of Wrigley Field, where the fans truly know ball.

Be sure to catch the full episode of Boardroom Talks with PCA here.