The Chicago Cubs have fired a Wrigley Field disc jockey after they played an inappropriate song when relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman left the mound on Sunday.
According to Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune, “the Cubs fired the Wrigley Field DJ who played an inappropriate song after Aroldis Chapman’s appearance during Sunday night’s game.”
The former Wrigley field disc jockey cranked a 1990’s song. “Smack My B____ Up.” by Prodigy over the PA system at the Friendly Confines when Chapman left the pitcher’s mound in the ninth inning.
Chapman is new in town, but did serve a 30-game suspension with his former employer, the New York Yankees, earlier this season for a domestic violence dispute between him and his girlfriend. Sullivan writes that “Chapman was accused of choking his girlfriend and firing eight bullets in his garage. Chapman was not arrested and no charges were filed.”
It was a terrible piece of judgement by the former Wrigley Field disc jockey to think that playing Prodigy’s hit from the 90’s to make light of Chapman’s highly publicized domestic violence dispute was okay. That domestic violence incident was a major reason the Yankees almost had buyers remorse in their trade with the Cincinnati Reds in late December 2015.
Cubs president Crane Kenney did apologize on Monday for the DJ’s actions on Sunday, when the Cubs were facing arch rival St. Louis Cardinals. Though the Cubs organization did not release the name of the disc jockey, Kenney did confirm that Chicago terminated its business relations with the DJ on Monday following the unfortunate incident at Wrigley Field on Sunday.