four home runs<\/a> were the most in the first eight MLB games by a Japanese-born player, sat with the Sun-Times for a quick chat after the Sox\u2019 sweep-completing 3-0 victory Sunday against the Blue Jays and was eager to discuss first impressions of his new hometown.<\/p>\nThe most Chicago thing he has done?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I\u2019ve been experiencing the Chicago cold, the temperature,\u2019\u2019 Murakami said through interpreter Kenzo Yagi. \u2018\u2018That is what I have been experiencing the most.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
How about a hot dog? Deep-dish pizza? Even Malort?<\/p>\n
Murakami laughed. Malort? That was met with a scrunched gaze.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Not anything Chicago yet,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
It only has been a weekend. Give him time.<\/p>\n
His favorite thing about Chicago so far?<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018White Sox fans,\u2019\u2019 he said in excellent English.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I\u2019m really grateful for the fans cheering me on,\u2019\u2019 he said through his interpreter.<\/p>\n
If there were worries about Murakami\u2019s time away from the Sox with Team Japan during the World Baseball Classic, those have subsided.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018He really fit in immediately,\u2019\u2019 manager Will Venable said. \u2018\u2018Before he left for the WBC, I thought he immersed himself with the group really well. He was engaging with the guys in the clubhouse, on the field. Obviously, there is a little bit of a language barrier, but that hasn\u2019t stopped him from building relationships with the guys.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Give him a second, city. Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami just completed his first weekend in Chicago, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,4,396,2562],"class_list":{"0":"post-665659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-white-sox","11":"tag-chicagowhitesox","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-white-sox","14":"tag-whitesox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116355351818959862","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}