Munetaka Murakami is as good a person as he is a ballplayer

SAN DIEGO — Munetaka Murakami, the top-notch person, is getting as much notice as Munetaka Murakami, the high-end White Sox slugger.

That’s quite a comparison for the first baseman from Japan, considering he entered Sunday’s series finale against the Padres at Petco Park leading the Majors with 13 home runs.

But there was Murakami, following Friday’s 8-2 victory, taking questions from the American and Japanese media for 15 minutes after homering in the contest. Instead of going immediately to cool down, shower and get ready to go back to the hotel, Murakami stopped to talk with Jett Beckham, 5, and Bode Beckham, 3, who had accompanied their dad, Gordon, into the White Sox clubhouse.

“He still took 2 or 3 minutes with my kids to make their night because they knew No. 5 hit a home run and they wanted to give him a high five,” Beckham told MLB.com before joining John Schriffen in the White Sox television booth to call Saturday’s 4-0 victory. “It shows who he is.

“He’s probably exhausted and he’s probably been doing this every night for the last month and a half, but he’s special. Special: What he’s doing is the only way to describe it.”

Murakami was introduced to the two sons of the former White Sox standout infielder and part-time analyst and exchanged a few smiles before crouching down to get more on their physical level to talk. The conversation closed with the high-fives wanted by Jett and Bode.

This San Diego trip also included Murakami organizing a Thursday off-day sushi dinner for 10 or 11 White Sox individuals, including Colson Montgomery, Chase Meidroth, Sean Burke, Noath Schultz, Sam Antonacci, Mike Vasil and interpreter Kenzo Yagi. Burke mentioned the dining was Omakase style, so they were trying everything that came out.

“It was good. It was interesting.” Burke said. “The weirdest thing I had … the only thing I couldn’t eat was, I think it was some sort of shrimp, but it was deep-fried, so the shell was still on it. I saw Mune take a bite out of the whole shrimp, the shell and everything.

“I’m like, ‘You can eat this whole thing?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah.’ I took one bite and I couldn’t do it. Other than that, really, really good.”

Their celebration during that festive meal led to a special handshake between Murakami and Montgomery after they both homered on Friday.

“A little too much fish for me,” a smiling Montgomery said. “But it was good. He just said, ‘Hey, dinner here.’ It was an authentic Japanese restaurant.”

“I’m glad you got to see that stuff,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “That’s the stuff we get to see every day that is overshadowed a little bit by his performance on the field. From day one, the teammate that he’s been, the way he engages with his teammates, the leadership, in meetings, in the clubhouse, he’s a special guy.”

There’s that word “special” again, put forward by Beckham. The White Sox are developing into a special team, at least through the first weekend of May, with Murakami at the center in so many ways. Of course, his baseball skills are most important in the short term and the long term.

“Last year, not having Mune or another guy extra that can put the ball in the seats, it takes a lot of pressure off of all of us,” Montgomery said. “Now we’re going up there, and we’re like, ‘All right, just go up there, get a good pitch to hit. Have a good at-bat, get on base.’

“Then you’ve got a guy behind you that’s able to put the ball in the gap. He’s able to put the ball over the fence.”