Counterpoint: It’s OK to Root for Chapman to Be Good at Baseball

In Commentary And Analysis, Transactions, Unobstructed Views by JonKneeV35 Comments

From the comments, the acquisition of Aroldis Chapman is pretty polarizing. I, in fact, was part of that camp until I looked more into what did/didn’t happen and tried to think about how much it all matters to us as fans of a baseball team. Myles wrote up his take on Chapman from a baseball and personal perspective. I’ll leave out the baseball side of things. If you want to read something positive baseball-wise, head over to BN. If you want something negative, read the comments from Sunday/Monday.

First off, headlines often shape our opinion. To be honest, I read the headlines and tweets. I didn’t go full in depth of the allegations, which shame on me. Well maybe not shame of me, frankly I don’t have time to read into everything on every player. In case you’ve been under a rock, athletes get in trouble quite often. Let’s check out the headlines from December.

  • Yahoo Sports: Police report: Aroldis Chapman allegedly fired gunshots, ‘choked’ girlfriend in domestic incident
  • USA Today: Police report: Reds’ Aroldis Chapman involved in domestic incident
  • TMZ: AROLDIS CHAPMAN’S GF POLICE PHOTOS Of Alleged Choking Aftermath
  • Bob Nightengale: Aroldis Chapman now a toxic asset to many MLB clubs

That sounds pretty bad. Choked. Domestic violence. Gunshots. Toxic.

Arguably the best time to get facts are at the time of the incident. Stories can change. To summarize the incident based on Chapman, the victim, and eyewitness comments. The victim took Chapman’s phone into a private bathroom. The victim found a text from a woman. The victim confronted Chapman about it. Verbal confrontation led to Chapman putting his hands on the victim’s throat (not strangling) and pushed her away. The victim fell. The victim’s brother tackled Chapman. Chapman still angry, went to his detached garage away from the guests and family at his house and fired 8 rounds.

Domestic violence is a serious issue. Nobody should make light of it. Chapman grabbed and pushed his girl friend and discharged a firearm near her. It’s threatening and intimidating. However, everything needs context. Chapman’s girlfriend wasn’t bruised or bloodied (check out the TMZ link above). No one was injured. No one was arrested. No one went to the hospital. No criminal or civil charges were filed. Because of Chapman’s profession and how good he is at his profession, this was brought to the limelight. The police were only forced to do a criminal investigation when the news broke in December, over a month after the incident. If this happened to a normal couple, it wouldn’t make the news.

I’m not trying to defend Aroldis Chapman here. He’s wrong, he admitted as such.

Sports are for entertainment. We marvel in the athletic feats human beings can do. I don’t feel shame rooting for him to succeed. I don’t recall those around here getting this upset when Starlin Castro was being investigated for sexual assault. Aroldis Chapman is good at sports. He will help the Chicago Cubs win baseball games. It’s reasonable to be on either side of this debate. It’s OK to have this inhibit your ability to enjoy Chicago Cubs games. It’s OK for you to root for him to strike out ever batter he faces in 2016. He might be a bad person, but we don’t have to buy his jersey.

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  1. josh

    I recall people being upset by Castro. That whole thing left a sour feeling in my stomach. His response was, as I recall, to blame the victim after the fact.

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  2. josh

    I don’t recall it being as polarizing as this, but it’s not like Dmick speaks for us all, or that I necessarily agree with what he said. We all gotta fan in our own way tho, and all the bellyaching in the world won’t change it, so hopefully in terms of baseball this move is a positive one.

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  3. dmick89

    Good article, JKV.

    JonKneeV,

    Yeah, I still don’t much care what a player does away from the field. I care more about domestic violence now than I did a few years ago because it can affect on field performance (suspensions).

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  4. dmick89

    josh,

    Wasn’t it sexual assault that Castro was accused of? In general, there was much less of an issue with that than people have with Chapman. At least from what I could tell by reading twitter and a few articles anyway.

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  5. Author
    JonKneeV

    josh,

    Ya, I wasn’t meaning to imply that. I just thought it was relevant to link to it. And just to be clear, I’m not strongly advocating for accepting Chapman as a player to root for. Just trying to give a counterpoint. It’s a sensitive issue, especially to those who have experienced it themselves or in their family. I doubt we will ever know the full details of what happened, but on the surface I believe I can get past it and still enjoy him throwing 104 mph fastballs.

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  6. dmick89

    dmick89: I care more about domestic violence now than I did a few years ago because it can affect on field performance (suspensions).

    That’s worded poorly. I have cared about domestic violence as long as I can remember. I’m talking about it from a baseball perspective, which the goal is to try and win games. I’m OK if the Cubs win a championship or two with liars, thieves, rapists and murderers. Sure, I’d prefer a team full of players who have never done anything wrong in their life and always stand up for what’s right, but I got a feeling that team would suck.

    Like Myles said, we’re all free to be fans however we want. The double standard that some fans who don’t care about Chapman have when it comes to a player like Sosa does irritate me though.

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  7. Bubblesdachimp

    I love the trade. I make no mistakes that the guys I root for are probably not the best people in the world. I want the Cubs to be the best team possible. The way you do that is get the best players. I was such a fan of this move since I knew certain members of Cubs Twitter would lose their shit. Let’s consider some things:

    1. “He won’t fit in the clubhouse” is a dog whistle of the Highest kind for he is a quiet Latin guy that doesn’t talk much. From every bit of evidence there is zero basis in fact for this in fact the team will welcome him with open arms. even if he was the worst fit of all time his play on the field is all that matters. Good teams have fun in the clubhouse bad teams don’t. Worrying about this is a thinly veiled racist statement at Latin players.

    2. Have seen a bunch of Cubs Twitter compare this to Patrick Kane and starlin Castro on Twitter and a few here. Those two were both proven to have done nothing wrong. I don’t remember CASTROS case as well as Kane’s but in Kane’s case the “victim” was clearly a money grabber. I believe the same happened to Castro. Pretending that an organization should just release talented players when they are the victims of smear campaigns and of being accused of horrifying crimes by liars is ignorant.

    3. An interesting article that came out after the chapman trade was “latins are loud people we argue loud and do everything loud” in reference to the argument. I think there is some weight to that statement. Did he need to shoot into the wall? Probably not. But he never shot a gun at anyone.

    4. Regardless whatever he did that night was not ok. However he did his time. Major League Baseball determined he would sit out thirty days and then be allowed to play baseball. If the Cubs didn’t trade for him someone else good was going to. Unless you were just going to execute him and never let him play again for choking a woman so hard she had no bruises much the less red marks on her neck I would prefer he be a cub.

    5. I think the media has covered this fine. I think shadev and BN have done a great job with this. They have been fair. I thought chapmans statement which i saw a few more SJW proclaim he didn’t even write (the other dog whistle being how could a Spanish person write so well) even though it was in Spanish was fine. He has obviously not been a problem in New York I am sure he will not be a problem here. He said he is done taking about it for the privacy of his family. I would hope the Cubs pull any media credentials from anyone who asks him about it in the Clubhouse. Same way I wish the Hawks would have pulled the score and suntimes credentials for lying about Kane all the time.

    6. Lastly, I think a lot of Cubs Twitter is stuck in an echo chamber of nonsense. Everyone is so scared of saying something remotely positive about the deal in fear they will be called a domestic violence sympathizer by Julie DiCaro or a few of the other people that complain about everything on Twitter. Rain watt from BP was literally the worst at this talking about courageous stands and shit. the Cubs fans I know are all universally happy about this since it makes the Cubs better. It includes people who are women (my mom, boss, girlfriend) and men.

    I am thrilled with the deal. He is going to be a beast.

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  8. dmick89

    I’ve read nothing about Patrick Kane’s case at all, but I wouldn’t say the woman in Castro’s case was a money grabber. I have no idea what happened and I don’t think the police did if I recall correctly. They just didn’t have enough evidence to move forward, which is not the same thing as proven innocent.

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  9. Edwin

    The move is about winning, which is fine. Over the years I’ve actually become less interested in winning, and more interested in having players who I enjoy watching play baseball. For me, that also includes having players who I don’t need to worry about their off field issues. At times maybe it makes me a hypocrate, and I guess you could probably do the “why hate player X and not player Y” issue, but whatever. For me, having a player like Chapman does make it harder for me to enjoy following the team, even though I know that having him really helps their shot at winning.

    However, it’s not a deal breaker, and it’s something I accept. What really drives me crazy is the insistance (almost entirely from fans) that somehow the Cubs are not only the most talented organization, but are also somehow morally superior to other teams. That the Cubs care about character, integrity, that this is somehow part of the “Cubs way”. The Cubs are just as “Dirty” as any other team in baseball.

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  10. Edwin

    dmick89: I’m OK if the Cubs win a championship or two with liars, thieves, rapists and murderers

    I’d probably draw a hard line on rapists and murderers.

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  11. Bubblesdachimp

    Re looking at the Castro incident the woman went to the hospital right away and no evidence ever existed. Didn’t stop Julie from straw manning on Castro as well ” have seen very few victims over the course of my career that I didn’t believe”

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  12. Bubblesdachimp

    I would be cool with reddick depending on the price. I can’t get over how awful Heyward is. Whenever he steps to the plate I am shocked when he doesn’t ground to second. he is 3 for his last 39. This contract could make Soriano look like mike trout.

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  13. dmick89

    Bubblesdachimp: I would be cool with reddick depending on the price.

    Reddick will probably cost quite a bit and I don’t know if I want the Cubs to give up a whole lot after this last deal. Not sure what else they could give up other than Happ and I’d like to keep him if possible.

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  14. Perkins

    dmick89: Reddick will probably cost quite a bit and I don’t know if I want the Cubs to give up a whole lot after this last deal. Not sure what else they could give up other than Happ and I’d like to keep him if possible.

    In theory Soler should be back soon-ish, but I’m not sure how much to expect out of him. I’m worried about Fowler: in the 4 games he’s been off the DL, he’s sat out for one and DH-ed another. It doesn’t sound like he’s 100%.

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  15. Edwin

    Honestly they should probably play Baez more and see if he can get this right handed thing figured out. (I am sure he will) he has made quite the adjustment.

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  16. Author
    JonKneeV

    Some of the comments are a bit outside of what I’m comfortable saying or believing. In regards to Kane and Castro, unless the alleged victim comes out and says it’s a hoax, we will never know what really happened. In both instances, charges were dropped but the victims maintained that they were raped. Saying anything definitive is flatly incorrect. Kane and Castro have had at least 2 run ins with the law either prior or since (still no arrests or convictions). I’m more confident in saying that they are bigger threats to society than Aroldis Chapman is.

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  17. Perkins

    dmick89,

    My hope is that the “general soreness” thing has to do with getting back into playing games and being tired. Kind of like how lifting or running hurts more when you haven’t done it in awhile. But I think it’s more likely he’s not 100% and he’s doing his part to try to bury the Cardinals and Pirates before September.

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  18. Rizzo the Rat

    This isn’t hard for me. I figure that as long as there’s a guy throwing baseballs 105 mph, I’d rather he do so in a way that increases the odds the Cubs win the World Series.

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  19. Edwin

    dmick89:
    Edwin,

    I don’t go there so what happened?

    I’m just tired of the shitty comment section. And while I have a ton of respect for Brett and the rest of the staff, I can do just fine looking up my own Cubs news. Sucks for them, because I thought of the most awesome comment ever and was going to get over 1,000,000 up votes, but now I’m never going to share it.

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