SNY’s Gary Cohen questions details surrounding Matt Shaw’s decision to leave Cubs for Charlie Kirk memorial

Chicago Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw skipped a critical late-season game on Sunday to attend a memorial service for right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. The Cubs, who played a man down rather than place Shaw on the restricted list (due to his ineligibility for placement on MLB’s bereavement list, as Kirk was not an immediate family member), lost 1-0 to the Cincinnati Reds.

That specific information only came to light on Monday after Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters on Sunday that Shaw was away from the team to attend a friend’s funeral.

Shaw had also been scratched from the Cubs’ lineup on Sept. 10, the day Kirk was killed, due to what the club said at the time was a team matter.

The rookie has since stated that he consulted with various Cubs veterans, Counsell, and team president Jed Hoyer before deciding to attend the Sept. 21 event outside of Phoenix, saying he felt he had their support. He has also said that he and Kirk were friends and would often text each other.

The Cubs entered Tuesday night having clinched a wild-card berth but still battling for seeding and home-field advantage. They took on the New York Mets, who are currently fighting for their playoff lives. With everything at stake for both clubs, SNY announcer Gary Cohen pondered Shaw’s decision, and, while wanting to separate the politics of the moment from it, found it to be “weird.”

Gary Cohen wasn’t sold on the way the Cubs and Matt Shaw handled his absence to attend Charlie Kirk’s memorial.

“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,… pic.twitter.com/D5av7DMJyg

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 24, 2025

“Shaw had Cubs World in a tizzy this weekend when he was not here for the Cubs game with the Reds. Game they lost 1-0, and in which his lack of presence was felt,” said Cohen during Shaw’s 4th-inning at-bat. “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.”

“It’s unusual. I think it’s unprecedented, at least from my experience as a player,” said SNY analyst Todd Zeile. “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.”

“Do you think the fact that he’s a rookie changes the equation at all?” asked Cohen. “That makes it more or less egregious?”

“As I said, I think that’s something that… would certainly be unusual during my era,” said Zeile. “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.”

“But 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,” added Cohen. “I think that in and of itself gives you a clue as to how it was received by a lot of people.”

Cohen might want to avoid the politics surrounding Charlie Kirk’s murder and the reaction to it, but we’re sure those politics are going to be on the lookout for him. In the days following his death, many of Kirk’s supporters have exercised their appreciation of free speech by targeting individuals with differing opinions about Kirk and his stances to inflict punishment on them. That’s been extended out in many different directions as well, so we’ll see if Cohen hears from any disgruntled Cubs fans or otherwise about this one.