Fast starts by Chicago teams catch commissioner’s attention

Four first-place teams on one night playing in Chicago, including the White Sox and Cubs, doesn’t happen every day.

In fact, it’s never happened in any city, according to STATS.

The commissioner of baseball talking about a subway World Series doesn’t happen often, either, but with the Cubs and Sox both rolling to fast starts in 2016, Rob Manfred was asked about whether he’s thought about the possibility and what it would mean for the game.

“If I told you that hadn’t crossed my mind, you’d say they need to get somebody else to do this job,” Manfred said while discussing a variety of topics about Thursday at U.S. Cellular Field.

“We are proud of all 30 of our markets,” Manfred said. “They’re all important to us. There is no doubt that our largest markets, when they are successful, they’re good for our overall business. I think the idea of having two really good teams in a major market like Chicago is particularly exciting. It creates the prospect of postseason play that could be compelling and it’s a great thing, a great thing for Chicago.”

White Sox manager Robin Ventura, who played on a New York Mets team that played the New York Yankees in the 2000 World Series, has talked before about how great that was for the city of New York. Ventura has been asked a few times about the Cubs fast start in conjunction with his team’s, and while he is a friend of Cubs manager Joe Maddon, Ventura hasn’t thrown many bouquets the Cubs’ way.

Asked about the Cubs playing the first-place Washington Nationals across town while his team was about to play the first-place Boston Red Sox Thursday, Ventura said, “I don’t care about the other game. I get it, that it’s cool for the city, but we care about playing the Red Sox right now. … Our concern is playing them and doing the best we can.”