Fear and loathing in Shawn Chacon
Let me be clear about one thing–I wasn’t in the Houston Astros dining room a few days ago, when Shawn Chacon grabbed Ed Wade by the throat. But neither, most likely, were you.
As you surely have heard by now, Shawn Chacon attacked Houston Astros GM Ed Wade after they had a verbal altercation in the Astros dining room. Chacon has been cut by the Astros following the incident, and is going to have some trouble finding a job in MLB, I think.
Which is wrong.
I’m not saying Chacon was right to attack Ed Wade. He was not. And I’m not saying Chacon was not guilty in letting this argument get out of control, because he probably has a lot of guilt. But from everything that has been reported about this situation, Shawn Chacon was very calm until Ed Wade continued to incite him. From what has been reported, Shawn Chacon also basically told Ed Wade a couple of times to stop berating him, before he took physical action.
It’s not surprising to me that Chacon got cut; after all, he did attack his employer. It is surprising to me that the Major League Baseball Player’s Association is not all over this matter. This is a workplace matter, and the fact remains that, although Shawn Chacon is clearly in the wrong for attacking someone (violence never being the answer and all that jazz) there is a huge and important precedent here, which is that baseball players are human beings and deserve to be treated as such, and also deserve to be given a little leeway when they behave like human beings.
I was thrilled to see that umpire Brian Runge was suspended for his actions toward Jerry Manuel–he picked a fight, he sought out the conflict, and he deserves to be punished. And MLB acted swiftly and fairly and said the rules go both ways.
The MLBPA should be making an example out of this situation with Chacon in the same way, because had Ed Wade not confronted Chacon, and had he not really gotten in his face, he wouldn’t have ended up being attacked.
Chacon deserves to be cut, not only for his actions, but also because he sucks at baseball. But baseball players also deserve to know that the organization that represents them is going to step up on their behalf when something bad happens, even if it is (partially) their fault.
Tags: Baseball, ed wade, houston astros, major league baseball, mlbpa, players association, shawn chacon