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Jack White and Bill Murray randomly sat next to each other at a Chicago Cubs game in Japan

I can tell that they are gonna be friends.

Jack White and Bill Murray

Jack White and Bill Murray wound up randomly sitting next to each other at an MLB game.

Photo credit: Teresa Sedó, via Wikicommons (Jack White), Bill Murray (Adam Chitayat, via Wikicommons)
Ryan Reed
By Ryan ReedMar 23, 2025
Ryan Reed

Ryan Reed is a writer, editor, music journalist, musician, YouTube guy, and record collector from Knoxville, TN.

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Jack White and Bill Murray are two giants of their fields: a revered rock star and comedy legend. They also happen to be among the most visible celebrity baseball fans, regularly turning up at MLB games and having their faces blasted on Jumbotrons. Now their fandom has led them to accidentally break the Internet: They showed up to the same game—in Tokyo—and, in a completely random encounter, wound up sitting next to each other.

The game took place during the March 2025 season-opening series, with the Los Angeles Dodgers playing the Chicago Cubs. (According to ESPN, the MLB called it "the largest standalone international event in its history.") And White was so delighted by the whole thing that he shared some photos and thoughts on Instagram.

"You know what it's like when you go to see an MLB game between the Cubs and the Dodgers in Tokyo, Japan wearing a game worn Cubs jersey from the year you were born ('75) with your favorite number on it that Eddie Vedder gifted you before the game and you walk to your seat and realize that Bill Murray is by the randomness of the universe sitting next to you to watch that game," the musician wrote. "You know that feeling, right?"

We do not know that feeling, Jack, but I think we’re all glad this whole thing happened.

MLB Network reporter Harold Reynolds caught up after the game with Murray, who opened up about his decades-long fandom. "There’s a lot of really big Cubs fans," he said. "I don’t know if I’m the biggest or the largest, but I’ve grown up that way and I’m gonna die that way, so it’s a life well-lived." Reminiscing on how he became a Cubs lifer, the Saturday Night Live veteran shared, "My brother put his hands over my eyes and walked me up the steps into Wrigley Field and took [his] hands away, and I saw what it looked like on the inside. And this was back when there was only black and white televisions, so to see all that ivy and all the green, it was a magical moment. I still do it for my own kids."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

White is known for supporting his hometown Detroit Tigers, but he’s also just a baseball junkie in general. "Oh, yeah, always have been," he told a reporter in 2014. "Actually, this tour has basically been booked around baseball. We’ve hit almost every stadium we could in America. We’ve gone to Milwaukee, St. Louis, two games in Chicago..."

In 2011, White co-founded the baseball bat and sports apparel company Warstic. As the company documented on Instagram, White also donated to help raise funds for the restoration of Hamtramck Stadium, the one-time home to the Detroit Stars/Wolves of the Negro National League.

In other White-meets-Murray news, both icons were present at SNL’s "Homecoming Concert" TV special marking the sketch show’s 50th anniversary. Murray reprised his beloved "Nick the Lounge Singer" character, while White closed out the ceremony with a medley featuring Neil Young’s "Rockin’ in the Free World" and his own White Stripes classic "Seven Nation Army."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

bill murraycelebrity baseball fansjack whitesaturday night livechicago cubssportsbaseball

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