Chicago Cub’s closer Ardolis Chapman steady diet of fastballs gracefully brushes the radar gun at 100 plus miles per hour, with meteoric velocity and polarizing efficiency.
This is why baseball fans brave the ninth inning drama of razor thin scoring margins and the probable clash of a power hitter and a power hitter with fate of the game hanging in the balance.
In the Cubs 6-4 loss at the hands of the rival St. Louis Cardinals Sunday, Chapman was simply an implement for damage control in a non-save situation as the Cardinals pushed across 5 runs in the 8th inning. After retiring 3 straight batters in the top of the 9th inning, including two strikeouts, the Cuban born pitcher walked towards the Cub’s dugout to the song of “Smack My Bitch Up” by The Prodigy. This immediately sparked a chain reaction events which ultimately led to the team firing its employee responsible for stadium music.
As baseball is based on the three strike principle, unfortunately Chapman is at perpetual two strike count due to his brief affiliation with the New York Yankees and a 30 game suspension to begin the season for an alleged domestic violence incident involving his girlfriend. Sunday’s choice in the confines of Wrigley Field during Chapman’s exit, now has the apologists at the Cubs front office reeling faster than a Usain Bolt gold medal hitting the black market after the sprinter turns 30. It is stifling to take into account the amount of bandwidth and total energy expended in making hollow public retractions of non-issues. Cubs president Crane Kennedy fired this retort after terminating the stadium DJ, “The selection of this track showed a lack of judgment and sensitivity to an important issue.”
While it breaches the bizarre that a hometown player receives a direct and public taunt from a team employee, Chapman was involved in a domestic incident resounding in questions, conjecture and ambiguity. Was it a poor choice to play the song? Probably, because of the grating melody. Though the lyrics of the now controversial tune actually refer to the ritual of injecting heroin and not literal acts of violence, the onset of inside jokes and zany humor in the stagnant world of baseball at times is a good thing.
VIDEO: Chapman’s Ethereal Song of Exit (Warning- May Not Contain Actual Music)
