The Short Porch is wondering if Pete Crow-Armstrong should have faced a stiffer penalty for his altercation with a fan

The Crosstown Classic is not for the faint of heart. It doesn’t matter which team is winning more coming into the games, or which team has the better roster on the field. There is something about the North Side v. Southside that just inspires a whole other level of competition between the Cubs and White Sox, to say nothing of the fans. So it’s really not all that surprising that Cubs centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong found himself in the middle of an ill-advised interaction with a fan from the Southside after failing to make a very difficult catch during the series.

Al already wrote up the kerfuffle from a “right vs. wrong” standpoint. You should read the whole thing, and the comments. I’ll just say upfront I agree with Al that it was a teachable moment for a player who often wears his heart on his sleeve (and y’all know I have a soft spot for guys who wear their heart on their sleeves). But today’s short porch is devoted to a different question, specifically, what should MLB’s penalty for PCA have been in the aftermath of the altercation? MLB landed on a $5,000 fine for “comments made to a fan” after Sunday’s Crosstown Classic loss at Rate Field, but every baseball group chat and DM I’m in was much more torn. Half the fans of other teams thought he should have been suspended for at least a game. To be clear, I personally think MLB’s penalty was the correct result, but it did get me thinking about the threshold for suspending a player.

The video of the exchange is uncomfortable viewing and it seemed like an ill-advised engagement with a fan from my vantage point. The full picture matters here: a female White Sox fan began booing Crow-Armstrong and yelling “you suck” when he was just feet away after he missed a potential highlight-reel catch, and PCA responded with a profane and frankly crude verbal comeback that he acknowledged immediately was indefensible in terms of word choice. Crow-Armstrong apologized Monday for his language, saying he didn’t think “any of the women in my life would think I would say those kinds of words regularly” and adding that he was bothered by the idea of young kids seeing the exchange on social media. That’s a start, but honestly, it’s pretty clear he does use those words to at least some women who aren’t in his life, and that’s a double standard that is more than a little troubling.

Additionally, there’s the being a role model of it all. PCA is an electric player who has a lot of young fans. Two of my dear friends celebrated their son’s fourth birthday recently. They are huge Cubs fans and I may or may not have bought that kiddo his first Cubs jersey before he was born. He proudly wore a hyphenated last name No. 4 jersey to celebrate his big day. I admit I wondered what his parents thought of that interaction and MLB’s response. To PCA’s credit, he seems to understand and appreciate the weight of that responsibility, but I wonder if a $5,000 fine for someone who recently signed a six-year contract extension to be the face of the Cubs in center field through 2032.

In terms of the MLB history here, the suspension threshold in MLB player-fan altercations has historically been anchored to physical contact or escalating aggression. Anthony Rendon received a four-game suspension in 2023 after grabbing an Oakland Athletics fan by the shirt through the guardrail and taking a swipe at his cap. Dennis Santana was ultimately suspended three games last season after actually leaping up and taking a swing at a fan near the Pirates’ bullpen during a doubleheader in Detroit. PCA’s interaction with the White Sox fan is obviously in a different category than either of those instances. That said, Tim Anderson received a one-game suspension in 2022 for an obscene gesture towards a fan, which doesn’t seem all that far off from what happened with PCA.

So I ask you, BCB, should PCA have been suspended for his altercation on the South Side or was a fine with no suspension the right answer?