Crosstown preview: When White Sox’ Dylan Cease faced Cubs’ Dansby Swanson in high school

Is there a new wrinkle to the Crosstown rivalry?

Dylan Cease already has plenty of ties to both sides of town, currently pitching for the White Sox after getting dealt from the Cubs in 2017. But now he’s got another reason to circle the series on his calendar.

Cease revealed in an interview with CHGO that he once faced off against Dansby Swanson, the Cubs’ big offseason acquisition, during their high school days in Georgia.

And there was a little controversy.

“I don’t know him personally,” Cease said. “But funnily enough, my first varsity pitching outing my sophomore year, I closed against Marietta High School and I did face Dansby. That’s back when he was a switch hitter.

“He popped up to center field. But I’ve got to say – and I hate to be this guy – I threw one right down the middle that was called a ball. That would have been a strikeout. I’ll tell you what, I’ll send you the clip if I can find it.”

We found it. Play home-plate ump for yourself.

A close call, no doubt.

Cease thinks some video-forensics experts can finally get to the bottom of this.

“We’ll send it to ‘MythBusters,’ and we’ll have them prove that the ball was in fact over the plate.”

The two have never faced off since reaching the majors. In fact, Cease has never pitched against his hometown Braves, where Swanson spent the first seven years of his career before heading to the North Side this winter.

But there’s a good chance Cease will have a shot at finally recording a strikeout of Swanson this summer. The White Sox and Cubs play each other four times during the 2023 regular season, twice in July and twice in August.

Cease thinks he’s got that K coming – and that it’s long overdue.

“Ball doesn’t lie,” he said.