First and foremost I am all for punishing anyone, sports players or not, for committing domestic violence. I am also for punishing an idiot, my opinion, with a gun shooting it off in his garage with a baby in the house. Call it what it is though and it’s not semantics. You cannot, well apparently you can, suspend a player under a domestic violence policy when there is little to no evidence that domestic violence occurred. Witnesses changed their testimonies, there were no marks on Chapman’s girlfriend the night the cops came out to his home and there were no files charged. The police declined an easy opportunity to book, arrest and get some money through fines and probation (at minimum) from a celebrity who would pay it without blinking an eye because why? Because they are fans? They are nice guys? No, because they are upholding their oath to uphold the law and to serve and protect. There was no evidence that there was any protecting that needed done.
Depending on what you read Chapman may have been the one assaulted, not the other way around. The last thing I read was that her brother pushed Chapman down sparking the whole incident. So you get potentially pushed, the cops are called and they are told a story about domestic violence and the police find zero evidence of the fact. The police don’t press charges and no one was arrested, etc. and yet Commissioner Rob Manfred believes he has the power to suspend a guy for domestic violence under his new policy? Stop me when any of this makes sense.
I am not ignorant to the fact that something happened that night but it shouldn’t be on Chapman to prove it didn’t happen it should be on the police and the authorities to prove that it did. The cops took pictures, investigated and followed through with the protocol for a domestic violence case and found nothing. If Manfred wants to show up Ray Rice, the NFL and Roger Goddell then lay it on Jose Reyes, someone who is actually going to court and has charges filed against him for what he did. Not Chapman, not without evidence. And no I don’t believe the decision to waive his right to appeal shows any evidence of wrongdoing and I don’t hear any evidence of that in his statement. The league told Chapman, according to Joel Sherman anyway, that he could reduce his suspension by 10-15 games if he didn’t appeal. If he appealed and got a 45 game suspension he is delaying his free agency by another season, why would he do that?
Chapman is taking the month off, will look to build his value and his character back in 2016 and hit free agency again in 2017. Not appealing does not show any evidence of wrongdoing it shows that he is making the best business decision for him and his family. Manfred had to know that if he was suspended for 45 days that the Yankees would get another year of control over Chapman and he used it against the left-hander. This is rotten all the way around and it’s crap. If you want to suspend the guy for endangering the lives of others for shooting his registered gun that he owned in a garage that he owned then call a spade a spade. If you have evidence that he hurt his girlfriend, pointed the gun at her, etc. then suspend him for domestic violence. Don’t hide behind some policy that you just enacted and don’t hide behind the fact that you’re trying to send a message and make an example out of Reyes, Chapman and Yasiel Puig.
Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining, especially after you just pissed on Aroldis Chapman.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)