A's 3B Matt Chapman Says Oakland Will Have an Advantage This Season Because Nobody Went to Their Games to Begin With

Matt Chapman is apparently not going to hold anything back about the attendance in Oakland. As Stephen A. Smith once said, "Let's be nice. We don't have to go there. I mean, you're not wrong, but you didn't have to say it."

I would say this is not a great way to engender good will with the fans in Oakland, but I guess Chapman made it pretty clear he doesn't think there are too many to piss off to begin with — save my good pal and esteemed colleague Dallas Braden.

I actually love his honesty here. Oakland ranked 24th in Major League Baseball in attendance last season, drawing a reported total of 1.6 million fans — an average of 20,521 per home game. Those numbers are assuredly inflated, but so are everybody else's, so I suppose it evens out. Who knows, maybe it actually ends up being some sort of advantage for teams like the A's and Marlins.

The A's are really in a pretty unenviable position, playing in arguably the worst stadium in all of sports and having a team which has won three World Series titles in the last decade 15 miles away. Their new ballpark scheduled to open in 2023 should hopefully bring in some more fans, at least at the outset.

And it's really a shame the fans don't show up for a team which has won 97 games and made the Postseason each of the past two years and has exciting players to watch like Chapman and Khris Davis. All those guys can do is their part.

At least it appears Chapman and his teammates have found a silver lining in an advantage for the 2020 season.