Cubs Rookie Matt Shaw Is Exactly Charlie Kirk’s Type

Chicago Cubs infielder Matt Shaw missed his team's 1–0 loss Sunday in Cincinnati. The win completed a sweep for the Reds, presently a distant eight games behind Chicago for second place in the NL Central and clinging to the back of the wild-card contenders. The Cubs already clinched a playoff spot last week, but are just a game and a half up on the rising San Diego Padres in the battle for the top wild card. Sunday's tilt was important for both teams. Shaw was a healthy scratch: He'd asked for and received permission to miss work so that he could attend a memorial service in Arizona for noxious right-wing troll Charlie Kirk.

With Shaw back in the lineup on Tuesday, the Cubs hosted the spiraling New York Mets. In the fourth inning, with Chicago up 5–1, Shaw stood in against Mets reliever Huascar Brazobán, and this presented SNY commentator Gary Cohen an opportunity to discuss Shaw's recent excused absence. Cohen viewed the incident in narrow baseball terms, going as far as to refuse "to talk about any of the politics of it," but still described the situation as "weird." He and analyst Todd Zeile confined their discussion to matters of rule and precedent: Shaw's request did not meet the criteria for MLB's bereavement leave, and thus the Cubs had been prohibited from activating a temporary replacement during his absence. Because the Cubs were particularly cagey in communications, it came as a surprise on Sunday when it was revealed that Shaw was absent from the team altogether, rather than available as a substitute, as would normally be the case.

Shaw's absence, as well as his team's handling of the situation, scan as strange in baseball terms, but he attended Kirk's funeral as a personal acquaintance. Shaw, who was also a late scratch from Chicago's game on Sept. 10, the day Kirk was killed, later said he was invited personally to attend by Erika Kirk, Charlie's widow. Shaw met and befriended Charlie in 2024, when the two were neighbors in an apartment complex in Arizona, where the ballplayer lived for a time.

Kirk famously lived to indoctrinate college-aged men into his fundamentally violent worldview, and so developed a rapport with the fresh-faced baseball kid next door. It worked: Shaw says that he and Kirk bonded over the Cubs—he described Kirk as "one of the biggest Cubs fans I ever met"—and Christianity.

"The reason Charlie and I connected so close was because of our faith," he said before Tuesday's game. "That’s something that drives me every single day, something that I think about all the time." Shaw says he wasn't really aware of Kirk's views before meeting him in person, but a common religion and a mutual interest in baseball kept them in touch even after Shaw made his way to the majors.

Shaw characterized himself as a somewhat politically disengaged baseball fellow, who one day met a chummy guy from a similar religious background. The two exchanged friendly texts. A year later, Shaw was in a football stadium in Glendale, in an audience with Donald Trump, at an extravagantly publicized political event, and evidently found nothing wrong with anything said from the dais. Via the Chicago Sun-Times:

‘‘After something that was really horrible happening, the amount of joy that was in that room, with everyone coming together and realizing how important their faith was to each and every person that was in there, I just think is so powerful,’’ [Shaw] said. ‘‘Nobody was angry. Everyone was really joyful of how this had brought everybody together.’’

Certain people were angry, or at least enjoyed the freedom to appear so. Trump described hating his political opponents, and used his time to plug an upcoming announcement that his administration had "found an answer to autism." Stephen Miller, a straightforwardly evil person who currently serves as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, affected Christian mannerisms long enough to declare that the hearts of conservatives burn with a "righteous fury that our enemies cannot comprehend or understand." The project of the event was to assign guilt for Kirk's death to everyone to the left of Turning Point USA, and to reassert that those who will suffer amid the extremist right's remaking of the world will deserve it, because they are evil. That all this unmistakably violent and hateful rhetoric came decorated with many mentions of God and Christ made it an excellent tribute to Kirk's life work.

The Cubs squandered their lead on Tuesday and lost to the Mets, 9–7. Shaw had a hit and scored a run in what was Chicago's fifth straight loss, but he is heartened by his experience in Glendale. "It’s something, that feeling," he said of Sunday's event, "that I can hopefully bring to other people." Kirk's work continues.