Nobody wins in Chacon mess
Shawn Chacon has always been a volatile pitcher. The Astros gave him an opportunity. He proved to be efficient enough during Spring Training, and he got a spot in the rotation.
His performance in the last month or so hasn’t been the best, that’s why the manager considered moving him to the bullpen, maybe in an effort to ease pressure off him.
What happened last night and ended up with Chacon being suspended indefinitely, his request to be traded and maybe his end as a professional baseball player (and he’s well aware of that) is definitely beyond me.
This is what Chacon told the Houston Chronicle, and has been quoted by several news services:
According to Chacon, he was in the dining room after batting practice when Cooper asked him to come to his office.
“I said, ‘What do you want to speak to me about?’ ” Chacon said. “He said, ‘We just want to talk to you.’ I said, ‘Anything you can say, you can say to me right here. I don’t want to go to the office.’ He looked at me, and I said, ‘There’s nothing for me to say to you guys.’ And I don’t think whatever they had to say to me they were going to make me happy. I didn’t want to get in a closed-room conversation.”
“I sat down to eat, and Ed Wade came to me and very sternly said, ‘You need to come with me to the office.’ I said, ‘For what? I don’t want to go to the office with you and Cooper.’ And I said, ‘You can tell me whatever you’ve got to tell me right here.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, you want me to tell you right here?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ I’m not yelling. I’m calm.”
It deteriorated quickly afterward, according to Chacon.
“He started yelling and cussing,” Chacon said of Wade. “I’m sitting there, and I said to him very calmly, ‘Ed, you need to stop yelling at me. Then I stood up and said, ‘You better stop yelling at me.’ I stood up. He continued and was basically yelling and stuff and was like, ‘You need to (expletive) look in the mirror.’ So at that point I lost my cool, and I grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground. I jumped on top of him, because at that point I wanted to beat his (behind). Words were exchanged.”
Players quickly separated Wade and Chacon, who remembers being pulled away by outfielder Reggie Abercrombie.
I have never heard anything similar in my five years writing about the Astros. I can tell you that for certain.
I’ll let you make up your own minds about it. If you allow my two cents, I don’t know whether Wade crossed the line in his actions and words towards Chacon. Maybe he lost his patience with him. Let’s be honest, a baseball team is not precisely your five-year-old daughter’s tea party, whether you like it or not. Many have remembered stories of his alleged behavior during his tenure with the Phillies.
Chacon could have waited, kept quiet, you name it. Such violent behavior cannot be tolerated. If he was fed up with Wade’s tirade, there were other ways of dealing it. And it only makes it harder to believe in what he said. You cannot treat your boss that way.
Drayton McLane stood by Wade: “We can’t have anarchy,” McLane said that he told the players. “You can’t have rebellion. If (Chacon) disagreed with what Cecil wanted him to do, he should have had the courage to sit down and talk to him. He wouldn’t come in Cecil’s office.”
Nobody wins with such a shameful incident. Chacon will weigh questions about his behavior and why he can’t amend his ways; this episode is the latest on a series of tantrums and attitude (without mentioning his two positive test for marijuana use while being in the Minor Leagues). Wade will have to ask himself why he took such a risk, that ended up coming back to him like a boomerang.
The Space Race 