Constable: How Chapman clouds some Cubs fans' sunny season

As baseball's most dominant closer on baseball's best team, Cubs pitcher Aroldis Chapman was warming up in the bullpen Wednesday when a Miami Marlins' wild pitch in the bottom of the 9th inning gave his Cubs an improbable, come-from-behind 5-4 victory, and gave him the day off. Chapman had his moment Tuesday night.

That's when more than 40,000 delirious fans stood and cheered as Chapman strolled to the Wrigley Field mound. Speakers blasted Libertyville native Tom Morello's intoxicating guitar riff from Rage Against the Machine's "Wake Up," setting the mood for something electric. Chapman, a 6-foot-4 pitcher from Cuba, unleashed fastball after fastball at the jaw-dropping speed of 104 mph to preserve a 3-2 victory. It was a wonderful thing, and yet …

"I won't watch the Cubs now," says one-time Palatine resident Glenda Bailey-Mershon, former president of the National Organization for Women's chapter in Illinois, who can't dismiss the fact that Chapman has a history of domestic violence. Chapman came to the Cubs last week after he was traded by the New York Yankees.

"I didn't watch the Yankees for a time, either," says Bailey-Mershon, 67, a novelist and lifelong feminist activist who now lives in North Carolina and generally roots for the Yankees.

No matter what glories Chapman brings to the Cubs this October, some fans can't forget what he did last October, when he got into a physical fight with his girlfriend at their home in Florida. Claiming that Chapman choked and pushed her, the girlfriend (and mother of their daughter) ran outside and hid in the bushes while Chapman, according to police, got a gun and fired seven shots into the wall of his garage and one shot that zipped through a window without hitting anyone. A dozen police officers responded, but no arrests were made after the girlfriend declined to press charges.

"We want the Cubs to win. I get that," says Judie Caribeaux, executive director of Family Shelter Service, a Wheaton-based charity that has been working to eliminate domestic violence and help victims since 1976. "But it's not OK for that behavior."

Chapman wasn't charged with any crimes and lost nearly $2 million in salary because of his suspension. But he never accepted any responsibility, telling The New York Times that "I didn't do anything." He's moved on, and so have others, including the Cubs and most fans.

"The team has welcomed me with open arms," Chapman, speaking through a Spanish interpreter, told ESPN after his first week as a Cub. "What I have seen from these fans is not something you see every day."

Caribeaux sees forgiving attitudes toward abusers every day, as well as the blaming of victims. She mentions a CBS 2 television report this week that showed a man with a history of beating women getting probation after he was caught on video viciously throwing his 90-pound girlfriend around an Antioch bar as if she were a rag doll. Months later, when he broke bones in her back and neck and threatened to kill her, she cooperated with prosecutors, and her attacker pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison.

"I get really sad that we still think this behavior against another human being is OK. I think we have a responsibility to each other to say that is not OK behavior," Caribeaux says.

Chapman could have used his suspension as a way to address his problem and spread that message to others.

"He could have helped raise awareness," Caribeaux says, noting the impact of a male voice in a world dominate by female victims. "Instead, he went to his first response of blaming someone else. That's where I struggle with this."

Rooting for the Cubs but not for Chapman, Northwest Herald reporter and former Daily Herald reporter Caitlin Swieca used her @CaitlinSwieca Twitter account and the hashtag #Pitchin4DV to ask fans to donate $10 to domestic violence shelters, such as Family Shelter Service, every time Chapman records a save. Swieca says more than 100 fans have joined her so far, which is good news for shelters.

"I'm old enough to remember when we did not have domestic violence shelters and it was considered a private matter," Bailey-Mershon says.

"I know people want to say, 'That's their private life,' but that's not true," Caribeaux says, adding that DuPage County saw 10 domestic violence deaths in 2014 and another six last year. Domestic violence, she says, "is about power and control."

That realization about domestic violence makes it difficult for some fans to cheer the power and control Chapman shows on the mound.