{"id":489188,"date":"2026-02-21T04:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489188\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T04:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:43:12","slug":"white-sox-new-star-munetaka-murakami-nearly-missed-his-mlb-debut-for-the-silliest-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489188\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox new star Munetaka Murakami nearly missed his MLB debut for the silliest reason"},"content":{"rendered":"

First impressions are important.<\/p>\n

The Chicago White Sox<\/a> new free agent signing from Japan, Munetaka Murakami, nearly missed his entirely.<\/p>\n

You see, Murakami almost didn’t show up on time for Chicago’s Spring Training opener on Friday. He was stuck in traffic.<\/p>\n

Apparently an accident caused a delay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so concerned if I could make it on time,\u201d he said through interpreter Kenzo Yagi, via MLB.com<\/a>. \u201cThere was a big accident on the highway, and I was just concerned the whole time. I was actually in the car until 12:50 [15 minutes before first pitch].\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0There’s one question Pirates phenom Konnor Griffin needs to answer<\/a><\/p>\n

In his first at bat, Murakami grounded out. Still probably remembering he was playing in a baseball game.<\/p>\n

His next time up, he ripped a single at 108.3 miles per hour off the bat.<\/p>\n

His third time, he hit a drive deep to center at 105.5 miles per hour for a two-run double.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’ve got to give Mune a lot of credit,\u201d White Sox manager Will Venable said postgame, via MLB.com. \u201cThis guy is so committed and such a professional. We’ve asked him to do some things that he hasn’t necessarily been accustomed to, and how he prepares and his adaptability and flexibility to do those things has been awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White Sox plan to give Murakami the day off on Saturday before getting him back in the lineup Sunday.<\/p>\n

If this first appearance is any indication, Murakami will be able to handle whatever is thrown at him.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First impressions are important. The Chicago White Sox new free agent signing from Japan, Munetaka Murakami, nearly missed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-489188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}