The Chicago Cubs fired a Wrigley Field DJ for playing what team president Crane Kenney termed an “irresponsible music selection” as closer Aroldis Chapman walked off the field in the ninth inning of Sunday night’s game, according to reports from the Chicago Tribune and other outlets. The song was the 1997 Prodigy track “Smack My Bitch Up.”
Chapman began the 2016 season by serving a 30-day suspension while on the roster of the New York Yankees, on allegations of domestic violence. Chapman was accused of firing eight shots from a gun and choking his girlfriend in an off-season incident at his home in Florida. No charges were filed, but Major League Baseball’s new personal conduct policy, adopted in 2015, allows for discipline regardless of conviction. Some Cubs fans and media, like ESPN’s Sarah Spain, expressed dismay at the Cubs’ acquisition of Chapman from the Yankees at the trade deadline last month given the pitcher’s downplaying of the incident’s seriousness. Chapman made his first appearance with the Cubs on July 27. Sunday night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals was broadcast nationally on ESPN.