Brooks Boyer says in two decades with the Chicago White Sox, he could never imagine sushi becoming a staple at a Major League Baseball ballpark. But the game changes and Boyer, an executive vice president and chief revenue and marketing officer for team, stood in front of a group of media and influencers last week at Rate Field to announce Sox Park would start serving sushi. And not just any ordinary pieces of fish. South Siders can now enjoy the viral sushi push pops that began trending on social media last year.
The Sox named their $23 pops after Munetaka Murakami, a first-year phenom from Japan who has unexpectedly propelled the club to first place in the American League Central, a rags to riches turnaround from 2024 when the Sox set the modern mark for futility with a record 121 losses.
It’s impossible to ignore how Japan has influenced American baseball. The first Japanese player, Masanori Murakami (no relation), debuted in 1964 on the San Francisco Giants. Over the years, Major League Baseball has welcomed 74 players of Japanese origin. This season, that number is 15, the largest number in the history of the game. Stars like Ichiro Suzuki, Yu Darvish, and Hideo Nomo have helped build international fandoms. Shohei Ohtani remains the game’s biggest star. There are also two Japanese American managers — Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Kurt Suzuki of the Los Angeles Angels.
Japan's influence has extended beyond the baseball diamond as the White Sox join a growing number of teams that offer sushi. At Rate Field, a limited number of shrimp tempura and California maki are served from coolers scattered around the stadium. They are sliced and stuffed in a tube, and served with a detachable mini tube of soy sauce. Media members joked that the stick could double as a weapon for surly fans who also might start throwing soy sauce into crowds.
Dodger Stadium first introduced sushi to the MLB for a few games in 1988. But not everyone was pleased. A 1989 story in the LA Times showed a lack of enthusiasm for the Dodgers and the then-Anaheim Angels’ sushi plans: “If that sounds unpatriotic, get a load of this: The sushi shack is going to go in where an ice cream parlor now stands.” Still, a 2013 LA Magazine compilation of the top 20 sushi pop culture moments in history included the MLB debut alongside dozens of TV and movie scenes.
Along with the Dodgers and White Sox's home parks, sushi is has been sold at at least 24 MLB parks, or 73% of the league.
Baseball purists have constantly policed the game under the guise of preserving tradition, making sure folks abide by a set of unwritten rules. There’s a strong probability that these kinds of personalities aren’t fans of anything spicy or non-American. Look how celebrating Pride Night has played out this year in San Francisco. Those fun cops were torn asunder in 2001 when Japanese superstar Ichiro joined the Seattle Mariners, and quickly became one of the most celebrated players in the league. That same year, the IchiRoll debuted, an Americanized roll stuffed with salmon, crab salad, avocado, cucumber, green onion, crispy onion, sriracha, rice, and seaweed.
Tastes evolve, and sushi has found a way into the mainstream baseball lore. ESPN baseball writer Jeff Passan reminds me over text that San Diego Padres star Manny Machado feted Roki Sasaki with a lavish sushi spread prepared by a private chef at his home when attempting to lure the Japanese pitcher to his team. Sasaki would sign with the Dodgers in January 2025. Citi Field and Yankee Stadium in New York, Oracle Park in San Francisco (which also serves sake), Petco Park in San Diego, LoanDepot Park in Miami, Camden Yards in Baltimore, Tropicana Field in Tampa, and GlobeLife Field in Texas are among the stadiums that have sold some form of sushi. Along with the Dodgers and White Sox's home parks, sushi is has been sold at at least 24 MLB stadiums, or 73% of the league.
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Stadium sushi hardly resembles what is served in Japan, and it’s not a staple at Nippon Professional Baseball ballparks, says Masa Niwa, a freelance baseball writer for Sankei Sports in Tokyo. Nawa is a respected voice and known in baseball circles for his coverage of Ichiro, something he started in Japan more than two decades ago. The bento box — filled with rice or noodles, karaage, chicken katsu, is the most popular choice for Japanese fans. Niwa is leery of sushi at the ballpark: “That game is pretty long, so you can't keep it fresh,” he says.
Sushi push pops arrived in Chicago in March, and Instagram is now cluttered with front-facing videos featuring entirely too happy folks testing out the cardboard tube’s mechanics and smiling at their phones. Suka Sushi in New York is credited with creating the item, making good use of what Food & Wine describes as basically mid-tier sushi. The bromakase guild should not feel threatened by perfectly affordable sushi as the trend’s popped up all over America. The design is based on Push Pops lollipops. As Niwa already notes, it’s probably not a good idea to save a sushi push pop “for later” like the candy’s jingle suggests.
Murakami, who homered twice on Sunday, July 26 with his parents in attendance during his bobblehead day, has yet to try the sushi push pop. However, he did allow his photo to be printed all over the cardboard tubes.
Veteran Chicago restaurateur Jason Chan is Japanese American and knows what it’s like to run a top-notch sushi spot when he worked at Juno. His current spot, Gavroche, is a French bistro with a decadent burger. Chan is excited, but skeptical about the White Sox’s newest food item.
“Food is definitely always the best way to learn about a culture and create a bridge between two cultures — sushi has become part of American culture as much as baseball and I love how much baseball has become a part of Japanese culture,” Chan says. “I just sincerely hope authenticity is what will separate a tribute from a marketing gimmick. If you’re going to celebrate a Japanese sports figure and his culture, celebrate the craftsmanship, the precision, and the respect for ingredients that define it. When that’s the focus, it’s not just good marketing.”
Murakami, whose towering home runs are called “Mune Shots,” isn’t the first Japanese player on the White Sox. Both Tadahito Iguchi and Shingo Takatsu played on their last World Series team in 2005. But it’s been a revelation on how Murakami has been received versus the others. Sox Park would play audio, with Takatsu’s alleged consent, of a gong after the closer would strike out a player. That odd cultural awkwardness is something that the team tried to avoid earlier this year when officials pushed back against TV announcer John Schriffen’s attempt to nickname Murakami, “the South Side Samurai.”
I just sincerely hope authenticity is what will separate a tribute from a marketing gimmick.
Niwa guesses Japanese players won’t care too much about ballpark cuisine in America. Ichiro routinely loaded up on onigiri before games, but was a fan of cheese pizzas for lunch. Former New York Yankee star Hideki Matsui’s pregame ritual involved slurping udon. Players do care about the availability of Japanese food in their cities. Niwa says the obvious, that Japanese players prefer the food in West Coast cities like LA, Seattle, and San Francisco. He also gave high marks to Chicago and New York while singling out Arlington, Texas (the home of the Rangers) and Kansas City, Missouri (the home of the Royals) as places where good Japanese food is more challenging to find.
In Chicago, a Japanese-Korean restaurant, Chicago Kalbi, has become a popular place for visiting ballplayers. A wall is covered with autographs from Major Leaguers who have stopped by for some imported wagyu beef. That’s another area of progress for the White Sox. Team staff say Murakami’s teammates are trying Japanese food for the first time thanks to the slugger’s influence.
A 1988 story in The Lewistown Journal, a newspaper from a Central Illinois town 200 miles from Chicago, addressed sushi’s Major League debut and quoted vendors from around the country who reassured fans that hot dogs aren’t going away. Boyer, who tells me he does not eat sushi, would say something similar with the sushi push pop’s arrival. Change is a real fear for long-time fans…even if that change has been happening for decades. passage of the aforementioned LA Times story from 37 years ago laments “now this last vestige of American dominance may be crumbling. Japanese influence is starting to trickle into major league stadiums…. If fans here want the privilege of watching Big League games, the least they could do is eat like Big Leaguers.”
In a world where baseball has a pitch clock and vegan hot dogs are now regular menu items around the league, the game continues to evolve. So it shouldn’t be surprising that in 2026 eating sushi is eating like a Big Leaguer.
