From bidets to baseball magic: How Munetaka Murakami and his teammates revived the Chicago White Sox

(CNN) — It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that the Chicago White Sox used to stink.

After three disastrous years in which they’d lost at least 100 games every season, the South Siders had to freshen things up; but they couldn’t have imagined that some new toilet seats would be a part of the solution.

Enter Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami, who arrived in December on a $34 million contract, requesting that a few TOTO Washlet bidet seats be installed in the clubhouse. Since then, the Sox have really cleaned up their act, and are now on the verge of an American League Championship Series berth in the MLB playoffs with Mune leading both the charge and the celebrations.

“I’m drunk!” he declared from the locker room after the Sox had clinched a wild card series win over the Houston Astros. Speaking without the aid of his trusted translator Kenzo Yagi, who was also celebrating with a beer next to him, Mune then bellowed a line that immediately went viral. “Yesterday, maybe hungover.

“No, not yesterday, tomorrow. Sorry,” he laughed. “I don’t speak English!”

At 6-feet-2-inches tall, Murakami is larger than life. He was nicknamed Murakami-sama in Japan because his feats at the plate were so God-like. He frequently launches home runs well over 400 feet, with an average exit velocity of almost 94 miles per hour that puts him near to the game’s elite.

He emphatically announced his arrival in the Windy City with homers in his first three games – only the fourth player ever to start their MLB career so emphatically and the first to do so for the White Sox. Already an Olympic and World Baseball Classic champion with Japan, now the 26-year-old was showing the big leagues his raw power. He’d smashed 14 homers by the time he knocked his first double, an unusual record for a player starting their career in MLB.

For now, his baseball was doing the talking, but those covering the team knew that he had much more to say. Brooke Fletcher, the team’s on-field reporter for Chicago Sports Network, describes Murakami as “sneaky funny.”

“We always knew Mune had this sense of humor,” she told CNN Sports. “In spring training, you kind of get a feel for guys, but he didn’t show it much this season.”

Fletcher says that Murakami was “locked in” for his rookie campaign. But every now and then, his quirky personality would peek through; there was the white sock that he pulled from his jacket at his introductory press conference, and the occasional one-liners that, due to their scarcity and because they were often delivered with almost comedic conviction, have become iconic.

His bobblehead figure, distributed in July on a night featuring another two Murakami home runs, featured one of those lines: “I have power.” If you Google his name, another catchphrase – ONE HUNDRED – appears on the screen next to a champagne bottle emoji.

When the White Sox clinched their first playoff berth since 2021 with a blowout of the Kansas City Royals, Fletcher was holding the microphone in an exuberant locker room. Asked to rate the celebration on a scale of one to 10, Murakami said, “100! No, 10. No, 100!” How many champagne bottles had he opened? “Hundred!” And finally, when asked to describe how it felt to celebrate with the team, he put his hand on the mic, looked into the camera, flashed a broad grin and screamed to a chorus of cheers from his teammates, “I am Japaneeeeese!”

“When I did that interview with him and saw him like let loose like that, I was like, ‘Yes, like let’s go, finally!’” explained Fletcher. “Seeing the attention it got on social media, I was glad that people were seeing him for who he is. He’s a great guy in the clubhouse.”

NBC Sports and Prime Video reporter Britney Eurton, who captured the “Yesterday, hungover” line thinks the reason that so many people are warming to Murakami is because his personality is so surprising.

“Culturally, when you think about the Japanese, you might think they’re a little more reserved,” she told CNN Sports. “Shohei Ohtani is much more reserved and quiet, and I think Murakami is just more unexpected and that makes the energy through the roof. He’s a big dude, obviously, a big dude with a very big personality.”

A magical turnaround

Chicago’s success this season is far more than it could have expected when the Sox were eliminated from playoff contention last year on September 6.

In 2023, they had lost 101 games, and things completely fell apart in 2024, when they were the worst team in all the majors with 121 losses, a modern-era record. Then only one team had a worse record than their 102 defeats in 2025. No team had ever made the playoffs after back-to-back 100-loss seasons, so to make it after three in a row was unthinkable, especially after one of their versatile pitchers was sidelined in spring training.

Mike Vasil had been expected to carry a heavy load from the mound in 2026, but a torn ulnar collateral ligament in March changed everything. His season was over before it had begun, and yet he has still ended up playing a crucial role. It is unusual for injured players to travel, but Vasil’s teammates lobbied for him to remain in the dugout, and his involvement has helped the White Sox capture something magical.

Back in April, reliever Jordan Leasure bought a $20 toy wand for Vasil to mess around with, and it has transformed the team’s fortunes.

“It was in the locker room,” he told Chicago Sports Network, “and I decided to start ‘casting spells.’ The wand comes into play while we’re hitting because we want runs, there has been a couple of times when we’ve been pitching.”

The month after the wand arrived, Chicago became one of the hottest teams in baseball. Murakami loved it.

“Mune will sometimes ask for his own specific spell,” Vasil explained, with complete sincerity. “You could potentially catch it somewhere, but he loves his own specific kind of spell with the wand.”

For example, after Murakami had homered against the Sox’s cross-town rival Cubs in May, the broadcast replayed a role-playing scene from the dugout moments beforehand, with Murakami intently following Vasil’s wand with his eyes and his body shuddering as he received “the spell.”

Vasil now wears an embroidered wizard’s hat that was gifted by the fans and when team manager Will Venable told him the commissioner’s office had concerns about his wand, he appeared crestfallen.

“What do I do now,” he said. “I don’t have an identity.”

Venable, though, was joking. Everybody loved the wand, he said, and the White Sox subsequently handed out 20,000 replicas to their fans.

Having now won their first playoff series since their World Series run in 2005 – and with a Papal blessing from Chicago’s own Pope Leo XIV adding some extra wind to their sails – the White Sox might be unstoppable.

A 4-3 win over the Cleveland Guardians on Monday put them on the verge of the ALCS, holding a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five divisional series. It’s one of the most shocking turnaround stories in sports in recent memory – and they aren’t done yet.

Their joy is infectious and other fans around the league are taking notice. They dance in the dugout before games, third baseman Miguel Vargas barks to celebrate homers and infielder Sam Antonacci dressed as Spider-Man to go to the movies.

Whether it’s magic or chemistry or just good vibes, this team is having a blast.

“These guys, they’re just playing a kids game,” Fletcher told CNN Sports. “They’re just having a great time.”

Eurton concurs: “They feel like a group that just loves being together and playing together. I feel like they’re just a group of little kids out there playing their absolute favorite sport. Make no mistake, they know what’s at stake here, but they’re having fun doing it.”

Nobody who’s seen them could deny that. And thanks to those new bidets and a cheeky bit of magic, it’s good clean fun to boot.

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