SAN FRANCISCO – Giants pitcher Jeff Samardzija still keeps a home in Northwest Indiana and a place in his heart for a Cubs team that drafted him in 2006 and signed him away from the NFL.
But it’s an older, wiser Samardzija who starts Wednesday for the Giants against the Cubs than the one who debuted in Lou Piniella’s bullpen during a 2008 playoff season – or even the pitcher who spent 2015 with the White Sox.
Married since the Sox spring, he ’s has two young sons and calls fatherhood “humbling, but reassuring because of what you get out of it – the easy returns just by putting some time and some love in,” he said.