MLB star blasted for missing game for Charlie Kirk | Sports News

SNY announcer Gary Cohen conceded that he thought it was “weird” Chicago Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw left his staff during a pivotal game to attend Charlie Kirk’s memorial service at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

On Sunday, Cubs supervisor Craig Counsell knowledgeable reporters that Shaw wouldn’t be obtainable in opposition to the Cincinnati Reds as a result of he “attended the funeral of a friend.” Chicago was subsequently compelled to play a man down, because the 23-year-old was ineligible for placement on MLB’s bereavement listing since he wasn’t an speedy member of the family of Kirk.

Before missing the competition — which had implications for National League playoff seeding — Shaw sought approval from a number of veterans within the Cubs clubhouse, in addition to supervisor Craig Counsell and membership president Jed Hoyer. His presence was nonetheless missed, as Chicago fell to the Reds, 1-0.

“I made sure everybody I talked to I had their support, that they knew why I was going, that I wasn’t leaving just to leave, that it was something that was really important to my faith,” Shaw explained.

During the New York Mets’ 9-7 win over the Cubs on Tuesday, Cohen, SNY’s longtime Mets play-by-play announcer, argued that Shaw’s absence at such a pivotal level of the season was weird. “Shaw had Cubs World in a tizzy this weekend when he was not here for the Cubs game with the Reds. A game they lost 1-0, and in which his lack of presence was felt,” he started.

“It was later revealed that he had been given permission to attend Charlie Kirk’s funeral. And I don’t want to talk about any of the politics of it, but the thought of leaving your team in the middle of a race for any reason other than a family emergency really strikes me as weird.”

SNY analyst Todd Zeile chimed in, “It’s unusual. I think it’s unprecedented, at least from my experience as a player. And I think it made it a little bit more unusual that it was not revealed until after it came to issue because he was thought to be in the dugout and maybe available, and then was not. And that’s how it was revealed. So it became maybe more of a story than it could have been had it been addressed from the beginning.”

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When Cohen requested if Shaw’s standing as a rookie made the choice “more or less egregious,” Zeile replied: “As I said, I think that’s something that… would certainly be unusual during my era. But then again, there was no paternity leave. There was no bereavement leave. When I played at all, you showed up and just found a way to get through work. But that has changed. That has changed.”

According to Cohen, the truth that Shaw wasn’t eligible for MLB’s bereavement listing spoke volumes. “I thought it was telling that the reason that they didn’t tell anybody and that they had to play a man short was that the situation did not qualify for baseball’s bereavement list,” he concluded. “I think that in and of itself gives you a clue as to how it was received by a lot of people.”