SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — A large contingent of more than two dozen reporters and a handful of camera crews showed up at Salt River Field for Monday’s Chicago White Sox-Colorado Rockies game.
The vast majority were from the Japanese media, on hand to chronicle the spring of Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami. Shohei Ohtani and Seiya Suzuki flew back to Japan on Monday to prepare for the World Baseball Classic, and some of the Japanese reporters who remained in Arizona said they decided to check out Murakami for their readers back home.
“I’m definitely used to it, playing in Japan and everything,” Murakami said through an interpreter afterward. “So it doesn’t have anything to do with Shohei leaving or nothing like that.”
Murakami went 2-for-4 with a double against the Rockies and is hitting .400 while still seeking his first Cactus League home run. He’s expected to become the face of the organization, though Murakami said Monday it’s way too soon for that.
Munetaka Murakami of the White Sox at bat during a spring training game against the Rockies at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (Ric Tapia/Getty Images)
“I haven’t had any results in the major leagues yet, so I don’t think of myself as the face of the franchise yet,” he said. “So I’ll try to build that up (this) season.”
Endorsement deals are possible, but nothing is in the works.
“Chicago hasn’t known me yet,” he said. “So I’ll try to hit as many bombs as possible that a lot of people will get to know me and I’ll get these endorsement deals.”
The Nisei Lounge, a North Side bar founded by second-generation Japanese immigrants in 1951, is ready for a Murakami sponsorship.
Is winning in spring training important? Not really, but for a team like the Sox that’s looking to rebound from three straight seasons of 100 or more losses, a 3-0 start to Cactus League play was most welcome.
“We’re really focused on the process and the things we’re doing before that (game) result,” manager Will Venable said before Monday’s 5-4 loss to the Rockies. “Winning isn’t something that you just flip a switch, you know? It is important that we finish these games and do the things up to the end of these games that lead to winning.
“It’s always great to get the result, and we want to win every one of these games. We’re competitive and we know that wins matter. Creating those habits that lead to good results. It’s nice having those upfront here, and we certainly want to continue getting as many as possible.”
According to the Sox, the last time they won three straight to start Cactus League play was 2004. The last time the Sox won their first four spring games was 1995, when they played in Sarasota, Fla., in the Grapefruit League. That was the year players returned from the strike after replacement players were used to start spring training.
The Sox lost one of the all-time coaching greats recently with the death of Joe Nossek, who served in Chicago under managers from Tony La Russa to Jerry Manuel and alongside other greats, including Gene Mauch and Dick Howser.
White Sox manager Jerry Manuel, right, and coach Joe Nossek watch batting practice before a game against the Tigers on April 29, 2000, in Detroit. (Charles Cherney/Chicago Tribune)
Nossek, who was 85, was a former player who gained renown as a coach for being the best sign stealer in the business, a label he wore proudly as the Sox bench coach.
“Joe had one of the best minds in the game,” La Russa told me Monday. “I’ve told people that the three greatest minds I’ve seen in baseball were Whitey Herzog, Joe Maddon and Joe Nossek.”
Stealing signs from the bench is allowed and even encouraged, though MLB was forced to ban technology from dugouts when teams began to take it to another level. Just the idea that Nossek was watching them from the Sox bench forced teams to change their signs during games. It was a mind game he loved to play.
“I got hooked on it,” he once told me. “A little success makes you want more.”
Former Sox general manager Roland Hemond hired Nossek away from the Kansas City Royals to be on La Russa’s staff after the “Winning Ugly” Sox lost in the 1983 American League Championship Series. La Russa recalled telling Hemond that Nossek was all they needed to win it all in ’84.
“I forgot about the manager,” he cracked.
Nossek left the Sox but returned in 1990 as the eye-in-the-sky defensive coordinator and later as bench coach. He retired in 2004.
Nossek filled in as interim manager on occasion but never cared to manage full time. When I asked him why, he said: “The ‘in game’ is what I’m about. After that, answering questions and everything … no thanks.
“I feel like everyone watched the game. They know what they saw. So (reporters are) out there trying to elicit something from you, and if they don’t like you, they can trap you. There are a few of them that are malicious nowadays. That’s what they’re ordered to do, I’m sure, to sell papers.
“I came from back in the early days, when the beat guys were close to the players and protected them when there was a problem. It didn’t sell papers, but those days are over, I guess.”
Nossek was truly one of a kind.
Joe Nossek serves as White Sox interim manager while Jerry Manuel sits out an eight-game suspension April 28, 2000, in Detroit. (Charles Cherney/Chicago Tribune)
The Texas Rangers are planning a “Nolan Ryan punching” bobblehead for their July 20 game against the Sox to pay homage to the time Sox third baseman Robin Ventura charged Ryan on the mound in a 1993 game after being drilled in the elbow on purpose. Ventura said afterward that Ryan gave him “a couple noogies” in return.
Maybe the Sox can honor Ryan by reminding him of the night Ozzie Guillen and Craig Grebeck hit back-to-back home runs off him in 1990, their only home runs that season. Giving up back-to-back homers to two light-hitting players angered Ryan so much that he drilled Grebeck in the back that night.
Perhaps a “Grebeck-Guillen back-to-back” bobblehead is in order for when the Rangers come to town in late August?