Aroldis Chapman, Domestic Violence & The Pitfalls Of Sports Fandom
By Stephen Gossett in News on Oct 31, 2016 3:44PM
Aroldis Chapman / Getty Images / Photo: Jonathan Daniel
Backs against the wall, the Cubs grinded out a 3-2 win on Sunday night in a win-or-go-home Game Five of the World Series, keeping alive the hopes of their legion fans of a drought-breaking rally. One of the night’s stars was closer Aroldis Chapman, who—aside from a potentially blunderous failure to cover first base—delivered a remarkable performance, striking out four batters and earning an eight-out save.
But the greater his performance and the higher leverage the situation, so too is the sense of unease many fans feel with Chapman, who is one of far too many athletes with a nasty, alleged act of domestic abuse in his past who faced little in the way of punishment.
It happened a year ago to the day from Game Five. On October, 30, 2015, Chapman allegedly choked his girlfriend then fired eight gunshots in her vicinity. He didn’t apologize for hurting her until July of this year, when the Cubs acquired him and the spotlight shone anew. He was suspended for 30 games in March and faced no criminal charge.
Sports fandom requires a lot of thorny moral navigation. Do we want to financially support owners who financially support Donald Trump? Is our beloved hockey team’s logo much better than the Indian’s Native American caricature? The sports world doesn’t always handle these questions well. Ask them and be accused of dropping a turd in the punch bowl.
Cubs fan Caitlin Swieca in August partnered with the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic to do more than ask the question. Using the hashtag #pitchin4dv, they urge fans to donate to anti-domestic violence charity after every Chapman save. With word spreading and the Cubs in international spotlight, the campaign has very nearly reached its new goal of $25,000.
“It’s a moral dilemma,” Swieca told the New York Times in August. “There’s definitely two conflicted feelings: the feeling of wanting to just watch a game and not let the domestic violence thing bother you, and the feeling of not wanting to let the domestic violence issue just fade into the background.”
With Chapman’s stage never larger, we have an obligation to not allow the issue to disappear. If the Cubs are to pull off a spectacular comeback from down 3-1 in the World Series, the first of its kind since 1985, and break the most infamous drought in professional sports history, there’s a good chance Chapman will be on the mound when it happens.
As we mentioned when the Cubs got Chapman, Chicago sports in general has a poor recent track record in this regard (i.e. the Bears’ Ray McDonald and the Hawks previous season—to say nothing about Hawks legend and alleged serial abuser Bobby Hull and his statue at United Center). Sports and socials issues are inextricable, and they should be. If rooting for the Cubs means rooting for Chapman, now, as always, is the perfect time to bear that in mind.