“Yankees Aroldis Chapman said Wednesday morning that he no longer possesses any guns,” nypost. com reports, “in the wake of the incident that has him starting the 2016 season with a 30-game suspension.” Police investigated the Cuban-born closer on Oct. 30, after his girlfriend Cristina Barnea alleged that Chapman choked her during an argument at his Florida home, after Ms. Barnea discovered some disagreeable text messages on her boyfriend’s cell phone. That when Chapman headed for the garage and . . .

fired eight shots from a handgun, one of which “flew through a window and into an open field,” according to police reports. (To be clear, Chapman’s main squeeze was not in the garage at the time.) Chapman admitted to the negligent discharges, for which he wasn’t charged.

The League, however, suspended the pitcher for the first 30 games of the season. Chapman is chastened.

I want to take this opportunity — I want this to be clear — I’m apologizing because the use of the gun. It was bad judgment on my part. But I also want to say that I never hurt my girlfriend. I want this to be very clear. I’m taking this punishment because of my bad judgment. [It’s] something that I definitely want to put behind me and move on.

I wonder if someone who wasn’t an MLB player would receive similar prosecutorial discretion and retain his job. Meanwhile, Sunshine State thieves are on notice that Mr. Chapman is now disarmed.

29 COMMENTS

  1. Whatever-no harm no foul(ball?). Of course rich pitchers get special treatment. Like NY billionaires with carry permits…

    • Say it with me:
      “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

  2. Sounds like a hotheaded, irresponsible gun owner whose gun rights need to be suspended until he grows up and gets his act together.

      • I lived with Cubans in Miami, and that’s a slur. It’s just that when Cubans are hot-headed, common sense gets suspended in an astounding fashion.

        • and that isn’t?

          Actual there is something to that. My Cuban roommate in college had to be talked down from a few flareups. Buffett’s “Cuban Crime of Passion” rang out through the halls on a couple of occasions.

    • Whatever you may think of this guy and his hotheadedness; anyone with the power to “suspend” someone elses natural, God given, rights, are a much bigger threat that he will ever be. Dangerous people belong in jail, or at the end of a rope. The rest should be left alone. But……, here I go being all civilized again.

      • Not sure that going to work is a natural right.

        He has been suspended from playing baseball for 30 games, for engaging in behavior that brings negative attention to the game, and to which he agreed as part of the CBA.

        I certainly don’t think that your employer should have the right to put you in jail or at the end of a rope, which is what you appear to be saying.

        • I was responding to the

          “Sounds like a hotheaded, irresponsible gun owner whose gun rights need to be suspended until he grows up and gets his act together.”

          Comment above.

    • It’ll take a lot more than a few spousal abusers to turn MLB into the NFL. Although it’s frowned upon these days, there’s still an element of 95mph fastballs to the ribs that keeps players in line.

  3. You’re all hating on him, but he recognized that he wasn’t being responsible with his firearms and got rid of them, without blaming the gun or calling for others to disarm. He is a shining example of what the left should aspire to – if you don’t feel ok with owning guns, don’t.

  4. So it is alleged that he choked his girlfriend.
    And he says he didn’t hurt her.
    Wonder what she remembers about that?

      • I had the same reaction to the use of the word “negligent”. “Brainless” would have been more accurate, or as an uncle used to say, “blame-fool-stupid”.

        • Negligence has many forms. Some born of ignorance. Others outright stupidity. Then there is malicious negligence. Doing anything you should not do or failing to do what you must, is negligence.

  5. This guy deserves a lengthy jail sentence for domestic violence and all of the reckless endangerment associated with him discharging a weapon.
    Unfortunately, anything that takes him away from the game that long is an unfair tax on the team that invested millions in him.
    As a compromise, the judge should convict him of a felony, but suspend his sentence. That way he can never have a gun to do something so stupid again, but he can still play ball.

    • “As a compromise, the judge should convict him of a felony, but suspend his sentence. That way he can never have a gun to do something so stupid again, but he can still play ball.”

      Because felons never get guns, right?

      On a side note, if he is, in fact, ‘dangerous’ enough to be charged with a felony, why should the rest of society give a crap how much money a baseball team invested him.

      Do you really believe what you have written here? A violent person gets a suspended sentence so he can play ball?

      Not saying he IS violent and deserves any punishment at all…just speaking to the model you created…felony charge + conviction + suspended sentence.

      (If you were sarcastic and I missed it, I guess the joke is on me).

    • All I can say if that’s the case then that’s a really stupid contract. It would be dumb to give a guy like that all the money up front, and then not have a clause to back out on the rest of it in the event of really stupid behavior rendering him unable to provide pitching services.

  6. “the negligent discharges…”

    Having a whoopsie and forgetting to pop the one in the chamber and therefore letting one loose into the floor is a negligent discharge. Firing a gun multiple times as part of a domestic dispute- even if not aiming at anyone- is something different.

  7. The problem is the anti’s think “good guy” gun owners behave like this idiots. So someone with a gun is a thug, crazy, terrorist, or possibly well-meaning but undisciplined child like this guy.

    In other news ~300,000,000 guns in “good guy with a gun” hands were not used to shoot up a garage or anything else in a fit of frustration, this day, this week, this month, this year, or ever. Just sayin.

Comments are closed.