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New York Mets play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen criticized Chicago Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw for skipping a game Sunday to attend Charlie Kirk’s memorial in Arizona, and New York sports radio hosts ripped into him on Wednesday morning.
WFAN’s Gregg Giannotti, co-host of “Boomer and Gio,” blasted Cohen, who took exception to Shaw attending the memorial. Kirk’s wife, Erika, reached out to Shaw personally to attend given their friendship. The Cubs, in the middle of a pennant race, lost Sunday’s game 1-0 to the Cincinnati Reds.
“I, quite frankly, didn’t like his commentary, and I’m not going to now dislike Gary Cohen over it. He’s a great broadcaster, he’s been a part of my life for a long time. I thought it was completely unnecessary,” Giannotti said over the airwaves.
“Gary Cohen’s whole life has been baseball, and baseball’s a very serious thing for him. But Matt Shaw saw his friend get shot and killed – got shot in the neck in front of his family and his wife requested that he be there. And Gary Cohen’s got a problem with that because the Cubs are in a pennant race? Have we lost all touch with reality here?”
Cohen said he didn’t want to talk “about any of the politics of it,” but Giannotti and his co-host, former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, believe the second that was brought up in his statement made it political.
“You get into the politics by saying that,” Esiason said.
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Cohen also mentioned Shaw’s absence did not fall under MLB’s bereavement policy.
“Who gives a crap? If he wants to go to that, he can go to that,” Giannotti countered. “And don’t be mad at him. Why you’re mad, why you care, I have no idea. But be mad at the Cubs who granted him the ability to go.”
Esiason added: “I saw the interview with [Shaw] and he was talking about how he was friendly with Charlie Kirk because they lived in the same area. There’s a couple of pictures of him and Charlie Kirk together, and if Erika Kirk is reaching out to him, what are you supposed to do?”
Then, Giannotti posed a question to Cohen.
“Let’s say we didn’t know who Charlie Kirk was, and Matt Shaw was friends with somebody who got shot in the neck and killed in front of his family. Would Gary Cohen have a problem with that because he doesn’t know the person who got shot and killed in front of his family? Or was it because Charlie Kirk had a political platform that Gary Cohen disagrees with, so now it’s weird a baseball player goes over there?”
Cohen’s comments came late in the game between the Mets and Cubs on Tuesday night while Shaw was up to bat.
“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,” Cohen said.
METS ANNOUNCERS CRITICIZE CUBS PLAYER MATT SHAW FOR LEAVING TEAM TO ATTEND CHARLIE KIRK’S FUNERAL
His broadcasting partner, former big leaguer Todd Zeile, added to Cohen’s sentiment.
“It’s unusual, I think it’s unprecedented, at least from my experience as a player, and I think it made it a little 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 was not, and that’s how it was revealed,” Zeile said.
Shaw told media members on Tuesday night why he made it a point to attend the memorial despite his team’s schedule.
“My connection with Charlie was through our [Christian] faith,” Shaw said before the Cubs opened a new series with the New York Mets on Tuesday, per the Chicago Sun-Times. “And that’s something that drives me every day, the reason why I’m able to do what I do every day, and that’s something I’m extremely thankful for.
“I know without my faith and without the many blessings I’ve been given in my life, that I wouldn’t be here, be able to talk to you guys, able to help this team eventually go and win championships.
“That’s something I feel really, really blessed about, so whatever backlash comes is OK. I feel strong about my faith and that what was meant to be happened.”
Kirk, a native of Arlington Heights, a northern suburb of Chicago, was “one of the biggest Cubs fans I ever met,” according to Shaw. After a conversation with manager Craig Counsell and some teammates, Shaw felt his decision to attend the memorial was accepted.
“The reason Charlie and I connected so close was because of our faith,” Shaw added. “That’s something that drives me every single day, something that I think about all the time. So, if people are wondering who I am and what I stand for, I’d say that my faith and the many blessings I’ve been given are why I’m able to be here, and I just want to make sure that I can give that back to people, that I can support people around me, that I can love people around me the same way that I’ve been blessed.”
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