Baseball writer shares wild Astros story

Jeff Pearlman is doling out interesting stories and behind-the-scenes insights from his storied sportswriting career over on TikTok. One of his latest stories involves a wild fight that broke out in the Houston Astros clubhouse.

“I was with the Astros, I think working my Roger Clemens book, maybe,” said Pearlman. “I’m in the Astros clubhouse and all of a sudden you hear, ‘Get the **** away from me, get the **** away from me, I’m gonna **** you up.’ And all of a sudden the PR staff is like swushing all the media people out. And the Astros had a pitcher named Shawn Chacón and their general manager at the time was Ed Wade. And the two got into a fistfight in front of all of us. And I think Shawn Chacón bodyslammed Ed Wade.

@jeffpearlmanauthor I witnessed a crazy fight between a pitcher and the general manager in the Houston Astros clubhouse #mlb #astros #writersoftiktok #baseball ♬ original sound – Jeff Pearlman

“It never gets talked about in the history of confrontations in sports but Shawn Chacón, a pitcher for the Astros, actually beat the **** out of Ed Wade. I think choked him. I remember Ed Wade had choke marks on his neck the next day from Shawn Chacón. And the next day in the newspaper, there was this small thing that said the Astros have released pitcher Shawn Chacón. And that was it for him.”

Chacón signed a one-year deal with the Astros in 2008 On May 16 and set a major league record with 9 consecutive no-decisions to begin the season. The team actually suspended him indefinitely on June 25 following that aforementioned altercation with Wade. Here’s some details from his Wikipedia page:

The incident began after Chacón repeatedly refused to leave the team dining room to speak with Wade in his office. Chacón claimed that Wade raised his voice and verbally attacked him, telling him to “look in the mirror”, though Wade has denied raising his voice or verbally attacking Chacón. In a fit of rage Chacón grabbed the much smaller Wade by the neck and threw him to the ground. When Wade tried to get up Chacón repeatedly knocked him back down before other players could intervene to stop the assault. On whether he regretted the incident Chacón stated “If there’s any regret, I just wish they had just let me alone.” Wade was not injured by the assault. The next day, Chacón was placed on waivers by the Astros and after clearing waivers, his contract was terminated with cause, meaning that Chacón forfeited $983,607 in salary (this move was appealed by the MLB Players’ Association, but the termination with cause was upheld by an arbitrator in August 2010).

Chacón never pitched again in the big leagues, spending 2009 with the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League and the A’s affiliate Sacramento River Cats. In October 2009, he was arrested in Colorado for charges related to writing bad checks and not paying gambling debts in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Meanwhile, Wade was the Astros’ GM until 2011.

[Jeff Pearlman]