You want a symbol of big-time sports’ return to Chicago? Try the Cubs’ Jason Heyward running out to right field for the first inning of the first game of the season Friday, carrying the city’s flag with him. Hard to top that.
That it was Heyward, and that he held that flag, represented more than just baseball, of course. An African American player of prominence — the first, and for several moving seconds the only, Cub on the field — would represent the team’s stated embrace of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and would do so while showing love to a city in turmoil.