Cubs VP Of Communications: Fired DJ Made 'Unintentional' But 'Careless, Egregious Mistake'

(CBS) The DJ whom the Cubs fired on Monday after he played an "irresponsible" song that made light of domestic violence following an appearance by closer Aroldis Chapman in the ninth inning of Sunday night's loss to the Cardinals was terminated because of both the selection of the explicit song and also the timing coinciding with Chapman having pitched, Cubs vice president of communications Julian Green told the Mully and Hanley Show on Tuesday morning.

Chapman served a 30-game suspension to open the 2016 season because of a violation of MLB's domestic violence policy, stemming from an incident last October with his girlfriend.

"It was a combination of all those things," Green said. "It was unintentional, we believe, based on our review and investigation of events leading up to the song being played. But it was a careless mistake and one that certainly required a very strong reaction and response from the organization, which I think everyone saw yesterday. So we believe appropriate (to fire him). It was unfortunate, but I think there's been some rumors or innuendo that this was some dark, twisted joke, and it wasn't. Certainly, I think the DJ feels bad about it. But nonetheless, we had to take a very strong response."

Asked about the double standard of trading for and employing a player who suspended under the league's domestic violence policy for his actions while firing an employee who carelessly played a song that referenced domestic violence, Green emphasized that one of the DJ's main responsibilities is to be aware of the the songs waiting in the queue list and understand -- sometimes just from a song title -- what is and isn't appropriate.

"There has to be some level of discretion," Green said. "I promise you, every sports franchise in this country is probably talking to their DJs this morning about what songs are going to be played for this season and the upcoming season. You got to be very careful."

Green wasn't sure if the offensive song by The Prodigy from 1997 had ever before been played at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs will institute stronger controls to review music selection, president of business operations Crane Kenny said Monday. The Cubs have about 5,000 songs in their playlist, Green said.

"As an organization that puts on a family-oriented event with women and children and families coming to this event, we have to exercise caution," Green said. "Even if that means looking at some songs that, hey, look, people might listen to in their homes or somewhere else, but it may not have a place at a ballpark or a stadium.

"No matter if it's a word or a phrase, there's probably someone that can take issue with it. But in this case on this day, given the sensitive issue surrounding the organization after bringing in Chapman, we had to make smarter decisions. We have to be in this particular case, this was egregious, this was careless. This was not an indictment on music today, but in this particular case, we had to have a very strong disciplinary response because it was careless."