Eli Saslow of ESPN profiles Cincinnati Reds closer Aroldis Chapman. And oh my God, are we glad he did. Because we get a glimpse of a pretty odd life. One of boredom and restlessness when he’s not playing baseball.
The scene: Champan’s extended family sits around his Florida mansion waiting for him to wake up, and they’re under strict instructions not to disturb him before he does. Finally, he does:Finally, a few minutes before 4 p.m., the curtains lift and Chapman descends the spiral staircase to the pool deck. He wears sandals, sunglasses and a tank top obscured by heavy gold chains. He lights a Marlboro Red cigarette and flops down onto an all-weather mattress near the pool.
“Why so late like this?” Maria Caridad asks. “Why all this sleeping?”
“There’s nothing else to do,” he says.It’s a profile that is both illuminating and rather sad. It speaks of a singular isolation of a guy who came to a country where he knew no one and now has everything he could have wanted, materially speaking. But who now seems kind of lost.
