During Saturday’s game against the Seattle Mariners, Cubs infielder Nicky Lopez joined the Marquee Sports Network broadcast from Sloan Park to share how blessed he is to play for both sides of the city of Chicago.

“Growing up was awesome. I’m blessed with two amazing parents, I have two older brothers that kind of paved the way for me. Naperville was great for me,” Lopez said. “I actually played my Little League in Bolingbrook but did high school and middle school in Naperville….I went to Naperville Central and enjoyed that. I truly met a lot of friends and my family is still out there in Naperville.

“You fast forward and you get traded to the White Sox and it was a down year but I always tell people you turn any negative into a positive. [I] got to be in the big leagues with the Chicago White Sox and I got to live the dream of playing back at home. So now I’m super excited about this opportunity to try to play on the North Side in front of these amazing fans.”

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One of the earliest memories of Lopez’s major league career was his first home run off current teammate Matthew Boyd. Lopez played for the Kansas City Royals in 2019 while Boyd played for the Detroit Tigers.

As thrilling of a moment as it was for him early in his career, Lopez’s parents were at home in Chicago and never witnessed his accomplishment.

“So this is kind of interesting because ESPN kind of blacked out [the game] while we were playing. My parents back home in Chicago didn’t even see it,” Lopez said. “I think Matt, 1-0 count, threw me a sinker in and I top-spun it luckily over the fence. He’s got me quite a few times since then but I always tell him, ‘I have him on the pamphlet’ which I call it a pamphlet because it’s not big enough for how many home runs I have.”

Lopez also became the first MLB player to hit a home run in the state of Nebraska at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha. Lopez played college ball at the University of Creighton, so for him to return to Omaha in 2019 cause a whirlwind of emotions for Lopez.

“I get to go back to my college stadium to play a big league game and then obviously the home run happened, so to be able be the first one to ever hit a home run in the state of Nebraska, which is super cool and kind of an MLB history piece that not a lot of people can say they did,” Lopez said. “It was in the same spot that I actually hit my last one I think it was against Nebraska too. It was kind of a whirlwind of emotions.”

Head over to the Marquee Sports Network app to hear the full Nicky Lopez interview.