Chicago Cubs: What was the D.J. thinking?

The Chicago Cubs fired one of their stadium D.J.’s after he played an inappropriate song on several levels on Sunday night against the Cardinals. What exactly was he thinking?

I’ll give the Chicago Cubs a little bit of slack. They are new to music being played by a D.J. over the sound of just Gary Pressy on the organ. But this was a mistake that seems like it was rooted in more than just poor judgement. The song that led to his termination was wrong just by itself. And then with Aroldis Chapman being the one coming off the mound?

In case you missed it, the song the DJ chose was a 90’s song by the band Prodigy called “Smack my b—- up”. If you’re old enough to remember when they still played videos on MTV, you might remember that even this one was risqué at the time. It only was in rotation late nights, and for good reason. Yet it ended up being a popular video for the time. Well before we had become so numb and accepting to images and sounds like this that are pretty commonplace today.

Not for kids ears

It wasn’t just about a song that was inappropriate for a late night crowd on MTV, but especially for a baseball game with families present.  Add to it that it played as Chapman–who already served a 30-game suspension from the league for alleged domestic violence–walked off the mound. All of us have different opinions on Chapman. Guilty. Innocent. Somewhere in the middle. He served his suspension and was never actually charged. And then this is the song that plays? Seems a whole lot more like the D.J. was looking to give his “opinion” on the Chapman signing.

"“The selection of this track showed a lack of judgment and sensitivity to an important issue,” Crane Kenney said. “We have terminated our relationship with the employee responsible for making the selection and will be implementing stronger controls to review and approve music before public broadcast during our games.”"

One of my biggest questions is how did you not have these controls in place before? I don’t think many D.J.s get free reign over the music they play at events, whether they be a prom, wedding, etc. But apparently, the Cubs set their guys loose.

Next: Bullpen trouble now will lead to success

The DJ was fired because Chapman was on the mound, not for his poor decision on the music. If he was making a point, I hope he thought it was worth losing his job. Could an outside party have had something to do with it? I mean, we were playing the Cardinals. Conspiracy theories will abound with this one.