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Rizzo capped the at-bat, which included 10 foul balls, with a rocket to right field at 110.1 mph. The sixth-inning blast tied the score en route to an 8-5 victory.

The biggest crowd at Wrigley Field since Sept. 22, 2019, got to make plenty of noise Friday, and Anthony Rizzo’s sixth inning, game-tying home run might have been the loudest the Lakeview neighborhood has been in close to two years.

Rizzo capped a 14-pitch at-bat against the Cardinals’ Daniel Ponce de Leon, including 10 foul balls, with a rocket to right field, a 110.1 mph shot off his bat that brought the Wrigley crowd to a roar.

Rizzo’s homer was one of seven unanswered runs the Cubs scored to beat the Cardinals 8-5. It was the longest Cubs at-bat since at least 1988 to end in a home run, and with it, Rizzo tied a game the Cubs had trailed 5-1 going into the fifth inning.

“What an at-bat, the place erupts,” manager David Ross said. “I mean, that puts pressure on the opposing team. That puts focus in you that makes you lock in a little better at the plate or on the mound.”

Ross likened Rizzo’s at-bat to Alex Cora’s 18-pitch battle against Matt Clement in 2004 that he witnessed as a member of the Dodgers.

“We just know we have that firepower,” Rizzo said. “You just keep getting guys up and having good at-bats and you give it to the next guy. We continue to have good at-bats, and the next guy is going to come up with a hit eventually.”

Sergio Alcantara’s RBI triple in the fifth was instrumental in trimming the deficit. After Rizzo tied the score in the sixth, Joc Pederson’s double off the wall to score Jason Heyward and Jake Marisnick in the seventh gave the Cubs a two-run lead. Willson Contreras homered in the eighth for good measure.

Full house again

Illinois moved into Phase 5 of its reopening plan Friday, creating the opportunity for the Cubs and Cardinals to play their weekend series in front of a full house.

“In a way, I feel like this is sort of symbolic of the opening of the city,” team president Jed Hoyer said. “Probably the way it should be for the city of Chicago. Cardinals-Cubs are going to open the city back up.”

Hoyer said he found the return of even a small number of fans refreshing, but hearing them sing “Go, Cubs, Go” after completing a series sweep against the Padres this month drove home how important the crowds are.

“It kind of made me feel like, ‘Remember what you had forgotten,’ ” Hoyer said.

After spending all of 2020 in empty stadiums, the small number of fans in the first weeks of this season helped, but Cubs players shared excitement about seeing a full crowd again. Clear, sunny skies and a first-pitch temperature of 84 degrees made the setting nearly idyllic.

“Especially with the weather today, not cold at all, it feels like Puerto Rico,” Javy Baez said before the game. “All of the fans are going to be really excited to see us, and we’re obviously excited to see them, too.”

Injury report

Catcher P.J. Higgins went on the 10-day injured list with a strained right forearm, and Jose Lobaton was selected from Triple-A Iowa. Dakota Chalmers was designated for assignment.

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Diego Vargas threw a lit explosive device through the window of Egg Harbor Cafe in Naperville on June 1, 2020, resulting in two explosions, prosecutors said

An Aurora man pleaded guilty to federal charges after being accused of throwing an explosive device inside a suburban restaurant last June.

Diego Vargas, 26, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of maliciously attempting to damage and destroy a building by means of an explosive device, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois said in a statement.

He is facing up to 20 years in prison for the charge, the attorney’s office said.

Vargas threw a lit explosive device through the window of Egg Harbor Cafe in Naperville on June 1, 2020, resulting in two explosions, prosecutors said. He also admitted to trying to steal cash a night earlier from an ATM in Aurora.

He admitted that he struck the ATM with a baseball bat and a metal pole from a street sign to try and pry it open, prosecutors said.

Naperville and Aurora were among the many suburban communities hit by looting in the unrest following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis that year.

Vargas’ sentencing hearing was scheduled for Sept 2.

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The judge did not explain what prompted the hearing, but she had previously ordered Kelly’s Chicago-based attorneys to file a letter explaining why they decided to withdraw from Kelly’s racketeering case.

More drama could be brewing for R. Kelly’s legal team as a federal judge in Brooklyn on Friday scheduled a hearing typically meant to determine whether a lawyer has a conflict of interest in a case.

U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly set a so-called Curcio hearing in Kelly’s case for Thursday.

The judge did not explain what prompted the hearing, but she had previously ordered Kelly’s Chicago-based attorneys to file a letter under seal explaining why they decided earlier this week to withdraw from Kelly’s racketeering case in Brooklyn.

The case is set to go to trial Aug. 9 — in two months.

Meanwhile, Kelly confirmed for the judge during a hearing Wednesday that he’d prefer to move forward with attorneys Thomas Farinella, of New York, and Nicole Blank Becker, of Michigan. Farinella told Donnelly during that hearing that “We’re prepared to move forward with trial.”

Kelly appeared finally on track for trial later this summer when attorneys Steve Greenberg and Michael Leonard of Chicago suddenly asked to withdraw from the case earlier this week. Farinella and Becker say the men were actually fired by Kelly.

Though the ongoing turmoil threatens Kelly’s August trial date, the judge has so far signaled she does not want to reschedule it.

Greenberg wrote in a letter to the judge Monday that, “Our reasons for withdrawal are significant and it is impossible, in our belief, for us to be able to continue to properly represent Mr. Kelly under the current circumstances.”

Though that letter contained no further detail, Greenberg and Leonard have since pointed to a dispute about trial responsibilities.

Greenberg on Friday said, “Our main goal is always that [Kelly] have competent counsel, and the judge just wants to make sure of that, too.”

Leonard declined comment Friday. Farinella said he didn’t know why next week’s hearing was called and indicated he would reach out to Becker, who couldn’t be reached by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Kelly’s indictment in Brooklyn alleges he led an “enterprise” made up of his managers, bodyguards, drivers and other employees who helped him recruit women and girls for sex.

A separate indictment in Chicago charges Kelly with child pornography and obstruction of justice. It alleges he thwarted his 2008 prosecution in Cook County with threats, gifts and six-figure payoffs.

Kelly, 54, has been held in Chicago’s downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center since his arrest in July 2019, though authorities have recently said they would be preparing to move him to New York for trial.

A prosecutor told the judge this week that paperwork had been filed to move Kelly, but she said Kelly’s attorneys “would like him to remain in Chicago for as long as possible.”

Contributing: Matthew Hendrickson

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There was only one place for the Cubs and Cardinals to be.

How much do they really understand America’s pastime in jolly England, anyway?

Enough to grasp how odd it is to see the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina, one of the great catchers of his era, have a run-scoring passed ball and a run-scoring throwing error in the same half-inning?

Enough to appreciate the size and spectacle of Cubs slugger Anthony Rizzo dragging reliever Daniel Ponce de Leon through a 14-pitch at-bat and finally — still choked up on the handle, as is his two-strike custom — launching a game-tying home run into a sea of delirium in the bleachers?

Enough to realize Joc Pederson should’ve had a two-run, go-ahead triple instead of a two-run, go-ahead double, but, hey, sometimes a guy just has to stare at the ball off his bat awhile and maybe it’s not the end of the world?

Enough to love every moment of it all on a magical day like Friday?

From the press box at Wrigley Field, I found myself looking out at all the delighted, sun-kissed fans in blue or red — “100% capacity!” actor Bill Murray hollered during the seventh-inning stretch, though it wasn’t quite that — and thinking about where the Cubs and Cardinals were supposed to be this time last year.

Any guesses?

Indeed: London. If not for the pandemic (admittedly, a hollower phrase than that couldn’t be found), baseball’s best rivalry would’ve been staged June 13 and 14, 2020 at London Stadium. We’re sure it’s a nice place.

But Big Ben isn’t just a clock, Buckingham Fountain isn’t just a bubbler and Wrigley isn’t just a ballpark. There was only one place for these teams to be on an afternoon of reopening — of rebirth — as Chicago joined the rest of the state in Phase 5. Of course, it was Wrigley, which opened its doors and its aisles to as many as could fill the joint.

Fifteen months after the sports world shut down, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are far down enough here that we can give thanks for it while watching a baseball game with 40,000 of our closest friends.

“A lot of emotions,” Cubs manager David Ross said, speaking for one and all.

Before the Cubs’ 8-5 victory, Ross spent some quiet time thinking about the last time he’d been in the home dugout at Wrigley with a full-size crowd surrounding him. It was 2017, his first year after hanging up the catcher’s gear for good, and he was here for a ring ceremony. The time before that? Game 5 of the 2016 World Series. What memories.

This was a long time coming for all involved. When June rolled around last year, there had already been weeks of nasty infighting between Major League Baseball and its players’ association. Numbers of potential games and percentages of prorated salaries were being bandied about, with accusations flying in both directions of bad-faith negotiating tactics. And then came shutdowns at multiple spring training sites as teams were hit by positive test results. We really had to way to know if there would be a 2020 season at all.

Eventually, teams reported to big-league stadiums for condensed training camps. Then-Cubs pitcher Jose Quintana had a crazy dish-washing accident. Stars Yu Darvish and Kris Bryant spoke openly about being scared, but weren’t we all? Of getting sick. Of getting someone else sick. Of ignoring — or of listening to, depending on your line in the sand — infectious-disease experts.

The Cubs were the model in 2020, adhering to protocols with uncommon earnestness. They are much less of a model now, one of only about one-fourth of big-league teams that have failed to reach the 85% vaccination threshold for coaches, players, trainers, etc. As we learned Friday, Rizzo — the longtime team leader — is among those who have chosen not to be vaccinated. That group is making it impossible for the Cubs to begin to move on from certain pandemic-related restrictions that the Cardinals and at least 21 other teams have freed themselves from.

“I believe the science is clearly behind [the vaccine],” general manager Jed Hoyer said, “but obviously not everybody agrees with that.”

So it wasn’t quite a perfect afternoon at Wrigley. But Hall of Famers Andre Dawson, Fergie Jenkins, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith and Billy Williams were on the field. New Bears quarterback Justin Fields was in the stands for a lengthy ovation. Murray revved up the crowd. Even the celebratory “Go, Cubs, Go” sounded a tad less cheeseball than usual.

OK, I retract the previous sentence. “Go, Cubs, Go” was as cheeseball as ever. On a day of rebirth, that was just what the doctor ordered.

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Anthony Rizzo shared on the radio Friday that he is not vaccinated, counting him among the number in the Cubs organization that is keeping the team from reaching the 85% threshold needed to loosen restrictions.

Anthony Rizzo shared on the radio Friday that he is not vaccinated against COVID-19, counting him among the number in the Cubs organization that is keeping the team from reaching the 85% threshold needed to loosen restrictions.

Speaking to David Kaplan and Jonathan Hood on ESPN 1000 before Friday’s game against the Cardinals, Rizzo did not offer context on why he is not vaccinated, other than that declining the vaccine was “a tough decision.”

After Friday’s game, Rizzo elaborated on his choice and left the door open to getting the vaccine at some point.

“For me, it’s just one of those things, I’m definitely not against getting it,” Rizzo said. “It’s just taking more time to see the data on all of it. There’s definitely personal reasons as well, but it’s just one of those things where as we continue to get more data, I’ll continue to be more educated on it.”

Rizzo said that team doctors have worked to inform him, but the decision ultimately is his.

“To me, it really is an individual choice,” manager David Ross said. “With everybody’s choices, you try to respect everybody and come together with trying to win ballgames and respect everybody’s decisions. There are some things we just can’t control, and guys’ choices [are] one of them.”

Ross and team president Jed Hoyer have previously said that they are not very optimistic about the team getting to an 85% vaccination rate, which would ease some of MLB’s COVID-19 protocols.

Said pessimism doesn’t mean that they have relaxed on trying to get more guys on board.

“We’re not going to stop trying to do it,” Hoyer said. “Any one person right now that we change their mind is still a positive for the group, even if we’re not at 85%. We shouldn’t only focus on the 85%, we should focus on getting guys vaccinated.”

The team has worked to educate and provide resources to players, according to Hoyer. With a group of close to 100 people once Tier 1 and Tier 2 personnel considered, there are a lot of individual opinions and choices to consider.

“I believe the science was clearly behind [the vaccine], but obviously not everyone agrees with that. If everyone did agree, we’d be well above 85%,” Hoyer said.

Inside the clubhouse, the players are maintaining a united front, at least publicly.

Javy Baez chose to get vaccinated to protect his children, he said, and while he and the other vaccinated players respect the individual choices of teammates like Rizzo, there have been some animated discussions in the locker room.

“If you want to call it, we argued about it, but at the end of the day we are all men here. We respect each other,” Baez said.

That respect might be the key to preventing a rift from forming if players or Cubs personnel are frustrated that the Rizzos in the clubhouse are avoiding the vaccine. Having Ross as their manager, who described Rizzo as one of his best friends, could help keep a locker room division from forming.

“That doesn’t change my outlook on Rizz,” Ross said. “I still respect Rizz a whole lot, his decisions […] He’s one of the big pieces of our team. We’ve moved forward in a great way this season with everybody’s decisions, not just his. … I don’t want to lose sight of how well these guys have gone about their business in the environment we’ve had to deal with and all the protocols.”

Right now, the Cubs are one of 8 MLB teams still below the 85% mark.

“If we get there, fine, if not, we’ll stay the same and we’ll stay together,” Baez said.

There’s a possible competitive disadvantage to staying below the vaccination threshold, and Rizzo said his choice was a very tough one.

“This is bigger than baseball,” Rizzo said. “This is a life decision, this isn’t a career decision right now, and it definitely weighed hard.”

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The judge did not explain what prompted the hearing, but she had previously ordered Kelly’s Chicago-based attorneys to file a letter explaining why they decided to withdraw from Kelly’s racketeering case.

More drama could be brewing for R. Kelly’s legal team as a federal judge in Brooklyn on Friday scheduled a hearing typically meant to determine whether a lawyer has a conflict of interest in a case.

U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly set a so-called Curcio hearing in Kelly’s case for Thursday.

The judge did not explain what prompted the hearing, but she had previously ordered Kelly’s Chicago-based attorneys to file a letter under seal explaining why they decided earlier this week to withdraw from Kelly’s racketeering case in Brooklyn.

The case is set to go to trial Aug. 9 — in two months.

Meanwhile, Kelly confirmed for the judge during a hearing Wednesday that he’d prefer to move forward with attorneys Thomas Farinella, of New York, and Nicole Blank Becker, of Michigan. Farinella told Donnelly during that hearing that “We’re prepared to move forward with trial.”

Kelly appeared finally on track for trial later this summer when attorneys Steve Greenberg and Michael Leonard of Chicago suddenly asked to withdraw from the case earlier this week. Farinella and Becker say they men were actually fired by Kelly.

Though the ongoing turmoil threatens Kelly’s August trial date, the judge has so far signaled she does not want to reschedule it.

Greenberg wrote in a letter to the judge Monday that, “Our reasons for withdrawal are significant and it is impossible, in our belief, for us to be able to continue to properly represent Mr. Kelly under the current circumstances.”

Though that letter contained no further detail, Greenberg and Leonard have since pointed to a dispute about trial responsibilities.

Kelly’s indictment in Brooklyn alleges he led an “enterprise” made up of his managers, bodyguards, drivers and other employees who helped him recruit women and girls for sex.

A separate indictment in Chicago charges Kelly with child pornography and obstruction of justice. It alleges he thwarted his 2008 prosecution in Cook County with threats, gifts and six-figure payoffs.

Kelly, 54, has been held in Chicago’s downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center since his arrest in July 2019, though authorities have recently said they would be preparing to move him to New York for trial.

A prosecutor told the judge this week that paperwork had been filed to move Kelly, but she said Kelly’s attorneys “would like him to remain in Chicago for as long as possible.”

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Chicago Bulls: 5 blockbuster trades to consider this offseason by Ryan Heckman

There has been a lot of good across Chicago sports for the past few months. Both baseball teams are making a push for division titles and the Chicago Bears have the quarterback of the future in Justin Fields. On the west side of town, however, the Chicago Blackhawks continue to look like clowns. The season looked like a good year from some people’s perspective but it was a colossal failure. The lack of depth reared its ugly head once the season started to unfold.

When you look at the 2021 NHL Draft Lottery, the Chicago Blackhawks are the only team from the traditional Central Division that participated. The only two teams that finished below them in the one-year COVID 2021 Central Division are the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings who normally play in other divisions.

A lot of bad decisions have put the Chicago Blackhawks where they are.

There are a lot of decisions that have to do with players. There has been a lot of mistakes made by Stan Bowman and his staff on that front. However, Friday put a different kind of bad decision in the light as Joel Quenneville was named as a nominee for the Jack Adams Award as the Coach of the Year. The Florida Panthers hired him not long after he was fired in Chicago.

That was a terrible mistake by Stan Bowman. He is one of the greatest coaches in the history of the sport and you can argue he is number one. Jeremy Colliton has been good and bad but it isn’t his fault that he was the guy who replaced Quenneville. Now, Coach Q is in Florida showing everyone why he is the best.

Joel’s Panthers were bounced in the first round but there is a catch. The Tampa Bay Lightning has a payroll of about 100 million which is about 20 million over the cap. They got it that way because of the way they manipulated it using long-term injured reserve this year. A lot of great teams lost to that team and are going to continue to lose to that team. They are trying to win the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row.

Related Story: The Chicago Blackhawks could trade for William Nylander

Quenneville has been hard on younger players in his coaching tenure which might not be right for the Hawks here in 2021 but at the time of his firing, it didn’t need to be done. We also don’t know what this team would look like if they didn’t make horrible player decisions since winning the Stanley Cup in2015. Seeing Joel be a Jack Adams nominee is gut-wrenching because he should still be with the Hawks. Stan’s time to be fired should have come a long time ago.

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Roenick argued that NBC held him to a different standard because he is a heterosexual man.

Jeremy Roenick’s complaint that NBC fired him because he is a heterosexual man was dismissed by a federal judge on Wednesday. The Athletic reported the decision.

Roenick, a former Blackhawks player who had been an NHL analyst for NBC, and the network parted ways last year after he made a series of questionable remarks about fellow hockey broadcasters Kathryn Tappen, Patrick Sharp and Anson Carter during an appearance on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast in 2019.

Roenick argued that NBC held him to a different standard, citing to 2020 video bit by ice skating commentators Johnny Weir, who is gay, and Tara Lipinski. In the video, Lipinski and Weir “used a vulgar term for a woman’s groin and joked about a sexual affair,” according to Roenick’s complaint. Neither were disciplined by NBC.

According to the Athletic, Judge John Cronan wrote “(A) comparison of the two incidents shows that Roenick’s behavior was categorically different. Lipinski and Weir participated in a skit for NBC that included jokes about the term ‘camel toe’ and an ‘(o)ffice romance’ between ‘besties.’ Roenick, on the other hand, used his ‘free time’ outside of his role at NBC to tell the hosts of a Barstool Sports podcast that he ‘jokingly implied’ to fellow vacationers that he had sex simultaneously with his NBC co-worker [Sharp], Tappen, and [Roenick’s] wife on multiple occasions.

“Simply put, neither Lipinski nor Weir joked about having sex with a co-worker. Roenick did. Whether these two incidents were ‘of comparable seriousness,’ is not even close.”

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Almost all coronavirus restrictions were lifted Friday in the city and state.

Chris Gideon sat with his partner in one of the city’s tiniest breakfast spots Friday morning — a place they would have been “very hesitant” to step inside a few months ago — and considered a world of new possibilities.

“It feels really, really, really good,” said Gideon, 22, finishing up breakfast with Lexi Faulkner, 23, at Famous Dutch Pancake Huis – Pannenkoeken Cafe on the North Side.

He said he’s considering going to a bar to play pool later Friday — “something that seems kind of new and really exciting.”

The popular breakfast spot has just seven tables, all squeezed together in a 680-square-foot dining room. Out of respect for COVID-19 “etiquette,” Gideon and Faulkner wore masks but quickly took them off, realizing they had little to fear because both are vaccinated.

A collective sense of relief, even joy, rippled through breakfast joints, gyms, bars and restaurants, as the city opened up Friday, finally doing away with almost all of the coronavirus restrictions that had been in place for so many months.

But the city’s new-found freedom didn’t erase the pain of the recent past.

“Psychologically, it was difficult to come in and put on a happy face and just feel confident things were going to be OK,” said Pannenkoeken’s owner, Linda Ellis. “It wasn’t OK. It was tough. … I thought we were going to close our doors, actually. We barely stayed afloat.”

Ellis said she had to lay off half of her staff during the worst of the pandemic. And even when the restaurant was allowed to reopen after the initial lockdown, customers would sometimes come into the cramped space and then quickly leave.

“We could hear them saying, ‘Oh no, we’re not comfortable with this,’” Ellis said.

So Ellis is now cautiously optimistic.

“I feel hopeful,” she said.

Stefano Esposito/Sun-Times

Anthony Brown, 30, was reclining in a shady spot along the Chicago Riverwalk Friday morning. He’d just been on a 2-mile jog with a buddy. He said he hadn’t given too much thought to the big reopening — in part because he’s been enjoying the outdoors so much.

But Brown couldn’t hide his excitement for what lies ahead in Chicago, now that it appears the worst of the pandemic may be over.

“It’s the best city in the world — especially during spring and summer. So I definitely feel it’s a breath of fresh air. It’s an exciting time. A lot of the stuff you can do in Chicago — it looks like we’ll have access to after this weekend,” Brown said.

The Chicago Archdiocese eased most pandemic restrictions Friday to coincide with the city’s and state’s reopening.

“It’s nice. … No more signing in and all that,” Pell Aguada said after attending midday Mass at Holy Name Cathedral of Friday.

Pell Aguada is a parishioner of St. William Catholic Church but was at Holy Name for her daughter’s 21st birthday.

Aliza Aguada said going to church is a family tradition and that she’s glad to be back at her local church and at Holy Name.

“As soon as they said, ‘We’re opening back up,’ we started going back right away,” Aliza Aquada said.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Marvin Washington cuts hair at Blues Barber Shop in Hyde Park — and has done so for 30 years.

“I cut every texture of hair on the planet Earth,” he said.

But a lot less during the lean months of the pandemic.

“I have other talents. I do little construction side jobs in order to keep the bills paid and keep some groceries in the house,” Washington said.

Even though he wasn’t trimming their hair, Washington checked in on customers, some of whom he’s known for 20 years.

“Whole entire families. You start cutting grandpa and their sons and their sons’ sons,” he said.

He said five of his clients died from the coronavirus.

Business is finally picking up again, he said.

“We’re getting a lot of walk-ins today, a lot of people who have enormous beards, the long hair …,” he said with a chuckle. “We’re kind of transforming people back into themselves.”

In Wrigleyville, Sluggers bartender Monika Lupo said it was refreshing to see people’s smiles and to hear their orders more clearly.

“This is the first day that we’ve opened back up fully, and we finally have stools behind the bar,” said Lupo. “Today’s a great day.”

Sluggers co-owner Zach Strauss, whose father opened the bar on Clark Street 36 years ago, said the pandemic restrictions took a toll on the bar.

“It was hard because we are the opposite of social distancing. We weren’t allowed to have dancing or have live music,” Strauss said.

“I’ve been here since day one, through the highs and the lows. And [the pandemic] was definitely the lowest,” he said. “But we had no choice but to make it work, so my brothers and I worked all the way through it. … This day is wonderful.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Steve Krater, who owns O’Leary’s Public House in River North, endured both the lockdown as well as looting during the protests in June 2020.

“It was a horrible mess,” Krater said. “Every window was broken. They ripped out the ATM. I found that in the middle of the street.”

Krater said he put up tents with heaters — something that helped his bar “get through the winter, limping along, barely surviving.”

He said he thought about closing for good. Four other bars nearby did just that.

“We thought about it from time to time. We just hoped it would get better. It did, and it has. We’re lucky to survive,” he said.

He said he’s excited for the summer season.

“People are ready,” Krater said. “A lot of people are going to be out today. It was really busy last night. People are out with their dogs and they have a beer. They’re not as apprehensive as they used to be. … Hopefully this is the end. Hopefully, we don’t go backwards.”

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