US men's hockey Olympic gold motivates Bregman for Classic

This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MESA, Ariz. -- A young Craig Counsell was out on a public sledding hill when the news of the “Miracle on Ice” began to spread. All these years later, he does not know how the information found that snowy slope. Counsell does vividly remember the reaction.

“All of a sudden,” Counsell said, “everybody’s like high-fiving each other and screaming and cheering.”

The celebration was after the United States men’s hockey team defeated the former Soviet Union in the 1980 winter Olympics -- a historic victory ahead of the gold-medal triumph over Finland. Nine years old at the time, Counsell did not really understand the historic nature of that moment, but he knew enough to join the hillside cheering.

“Everybody’s just going crazy,” he said. “You’re really not sure, but you kind of knew enough that you weren’t supposed to like Russia, right? Even when you were [9]. It was very patriotic.”

Flash forward to Sunday -- the 46th anniversary of the win over the Soviet Union -- when a large group of Cubs players and staff were in the clubhouse for a team meeting. They watched the ending of the United States men’s dramatic gold-medal, overtime win over Canada at this year’s Olympics. It followed the women’s team also taking gold in an overtime win over Canada.

Counsell and the rest of the room went wild.

“That was fun,” Cubs star third baseman Alex Bregman said. “That was a great time. Really cool. I cheer for the USA every Olympics and watch as many events as possible. We were all fired up. We were going crazy in the clubhouse when we scored.”

The timing is fitting with the World Baseball Classic set for later this spring.

Bregman is set to join Team USA, along with Cubs teammates Pete Crow-Armstrong and Matthew Boyd in a bid to unseat three-time winner Japan as the gold-medal winner. Seiya Suzuki was scheduled to depart for Tokyo on Monday to suit up for Samurai Japan. Jameson Taillon (Canada), Miguel Amaya (Panama), Daniel Palencia (Venezuela) and Javier Assad (Mexico) round out the participants from Chicago’s 40-man roster.

Suzuki missed the Classic in ‘23 due to injury, but Japan had his jersey in their dugout throughout the tournament and again during the championship celebration on the field. The outfielder will play center for Japan and Counsell gave him two starts at that position in Cactus League play before his trip.

Counsell was confident Suzuki would be smart about his time away from the Cubs, and had a simple message for the slugger.

“Make sure you enjoy yourself,” said the manager. “Seiya’s got a really good program, in terms of how he prepares. He’s very, very diligent about it. It’s a strength of Seiya’s, so that part, you know he will take care of it and he will do really well.”

If some Cubs teammates wind up squaring off in the Classic, you can expect the players in Arizona to be watching in the clubhouse. Sunday’s hockey game was a nice glimpse into the pride that goes along with playing for your country.

“You see the intensity of the game,” Counsell said. “Then you see the joy after winning and the disappointment after losing, and that’s why you do these things. That’s why you go after these things. That’s why you want to be a part of it. Who can blame anybody for wanting to be a part of that?”

Bregman smiled when asked if the Olympic gold was good motivation ahead of the Classic.

“Let’s do it,” Bregman said. “Let’s go win. USA, baby."