According to a report by the Las Vegas Sun, police in Nevada have issued a warrant for the arrest of former big league pitcher Shawn Chacon for a $150,000 gambling debt owed to Caesar's Palace. He's being accused of taking out three $50,000 gambling markers in March and hasn't repaid them, which in Nevada results in a felony charge that is prosecuted as a bad check. You may remember Chacon as a promising young pitcher and All-Star for the Rockies, a mildly successful starter for the Yankees, or a decent bullpen guy for the Pirates. It is most likely, however, that you remember Chacon for choke-slamming general manager Ed Wade as a member of the Astros early last summer. That earned him a release and he hasn't returned the majors since.
He wasn't out of baseball entirely, though. He began the year with the independent minor-league Newark Bears and spent the second half of 2009 with the Sacramento River Rats, the Oakland A's Triple-A affiliate. He was presumably hanging out there hoping that someone would be desperate enough for bullpen help that they'd both ignore his poor stat line with the River Rats and forget the time he turned the Astros' cafeteria into a WWE ring. That seems much more unlikely now.
