Nico Hoerner is ‘the new sheriff in town’: Cubs’ walk-off win felt like a big

CHICAGO — Nico Hoerner looked like a character in a “Saturday Night Live” skit, sitting in front of his locker Monday night with a smile on his face and a cowboy hat on his head. La Bouche’s “Be My Lover,” a 1990s Eurodance song, blasted from the sound system inside the Wrigley Field clubhouse as the Cubs savored their first walk-off win of the young season.

“Yan (Gomes) put it on my head,” Hoerner said. “We’ve got some sort of celebratory hat that I guess I’ve been assigned to. That’s what we’re going with. I wouldn’t read too much into it.”

No chance, Nico. Not after the Cubs outlasted All-Star pitcher Luis Castillo, withstood Jarred Kelenic’s skyscraping, game-tying home run in the ninth inning and finally beat a Mariners team with World Series aspirations. It ended at 9:17 p.m. when Hoerner knocked a ball into right field for the RBI single that scored pinch-runner Nick Madrigal, who had stolen third base on a risky play that made Gomes wonder if Madrigal “thought he was invisible.” This 3-2 victory underneath the ancient ballpark’s new LED lights felt like a game the Cubs would have lost last April.

Overreactions happen at this time of year. But for better or worse, these moments can still be extremely revealing. It’s hard to remember the last time there was real joy or major buzz around this team. Maybe when the Cubs swept the Cardinals as full-capacity crowds returned to the Friendly Confines in June of 2021, but that surge only teased fans and temporarily fooled players and staffers before an 11-game losing streak forced president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer to sell at the trade deadline.

So much of the “It’s Different Here” messaging felt forced. If you don’t win enough, the slogans and the gimmicks become a tired act. But there was something refreshing about the smirk on Hoerner’s face as he walked back into the locker room, noticed a group of reporters around Gomes and threw the cowboy hat at the veteran catcher.

“I just saw the hat and I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s the new sheriff in town,’” Gomes said. “Things like that happen organically. I literally just saw it laying around and I just grabbed it and said, ‘Hey, Nico’s got to wear this to do interviews.’”

It is obviously too soon to begin trying to track down Jonathan Herrera, the utility infielder who once got airtime for wearing a rally bucket on his head and a helmet with fake hands on top, to symbolize the celebration gesture the 2015 Cubs used during their shocking run to the National League Championship Series. But it is a long season and the goofy stuff is a much better sign than pointing fingers or answering questions about contracts and trade rumors.

Gomes, one of the defense-first catchers the Cubs valued over Willson Contreras, kept calling for curveballs as Drew Smyly retired the first 10 hitters he faced and limited the Mariners to one run across five innings. Five different Cubs…