Two days after missing a game in Cincinnati to attend Charlie Kirk’s memorial, Cubs rookie third baseman Matt Shaw said being among the tens of thousands who honored the controversial figure at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, was ‘‘meant to be.’’
As for any blowback — for his friendship with Kirk or for leaving his team during a critical closing stretch of the regular season — Shaw is ‘‘not concerned at all,’’ he said before the series opener Tuesday against the Mets at Wrigley Field.
‘‘My connection with Charlie was through our [Christian] faith,’’ Shaw said. ‘‘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.’’
The 31-year-old Kirk, a conservative podcaster, founder of Turning Point USA and ally of President Donald Trump, was shot and killed Sept. 10 during a public appearance at a college in Utah. Shaw, 23, was scratched from the Cubs’ lineup that night in Atlanta. He and Kirk had become friends last offseason while living in the same apartment complex in Arizona and had remained in regular contact during the season, according to Shaw.
‘‘When that happened, a lot of emotions came over me,’’ Shaw said. ‘‘I didn’t foresee that happening. I don’t know how to describe everything that happened and how I was feeling, but I will say I was tearing up pretty good. I had a lot of [teammates] supporting me, and that will be something I’ll remember for my entire life.’’
Shaw called Kirk ‘‘one of the biggest Cubs fans I ever met’’ and said he received texts from the Arlington Heights native after every game.
Erika Kirk, Kirk’s widow, asked Shaw to attend the memorial, he said.
‘‘I felt as though it was something that was really important for me to do,’’ he said.
Requesting permission from the Cubs to make the trip wasn’t an easy decision — ‘‘I kind of had turmoil about [it],’’ he said — but after speaking with manager Craig Counsell and several teammates, he felt supported. Counsell communicated with president Jed Hoyer and the front office on Shaw’s behalf.
Left fielder Ian Happ, the team’s longest-tenured player, gave it his stamp of approval.
‘‘For him to go and be a part of a celebration of life and grieve, from a human level, I understand it,’’ Happ told the Sun-Times. ‘‘We’re baseball players, and that takes up a ton of our life, but there’s a huge human element to this game, and it’s really hard to lose a friend and really hard to lose someone you’re close to.’’
Said Hoyer: ‘‘When a player has felt it’s important to attend a memorial service or funeral, if it’s that important to the player and it’s part of their grieving process, then we want to be supportive of that.’’
Shaw said he hasn’t had social media for four years and wasn’t a follower of Kirk’s content before meeting him. While Kirk gained millions of followers and fans as an influential voice in the hard-right movement that has come together around Trump, he expressed some views — on religion, race, women and guns — that repelled others.
‘‘I think that he talked about a lot of really big questions,’’ Shaw said. ‘‘I think everyone thinks about a lot of things. . . .
‘‘The reason Charlie and I connected so close was because of our faith. 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 is 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.’’
At Kirk’s memorial, some leaders of the MAGA movement didn’t hold back on invective for those opposed to it. Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, spoke of a ‘‘spiritual war’’ with the left. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, described a ‘‘righteous fury that our enemies cannot comprehend or understand.’’
Trump said: ‘‘[Kirk] did not hate his opponents; he wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagree with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them.’’
Shaw’s takeaway, however, was vastly different.
‘‘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,’’ he said. ‘‘Nobody was angry. Everyone was really joyful of how this had brought everybody together. . . . It’s something, that feeling, that I can hopefully bring to other people.’’
As for any Cubs fans holding any of this against him, Shaw has this message:
‘‘Disappointment is something natural for people you disagree with, and that’s OK. I think any way that I can support them and love them, I’m going to do that.’’
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