Maddon Mess Up/A's Free Ticket Night

It wasn't the reason the Cubs lost on Tuesday night but it didn't help matters against the Cardinals, either.

Trailing 5-3 in the bottom of the 8th inning the Cubs had nobody out with Addison Russell on first base and Jason Heyward stepping in against the left-handed Tyler Lyons, who had just replaced the struggling Greg Holland.

Easy decision then for Maddon and the Cubs, right?

Well, not so much.

If you've watched the Cubs at all over the last 2 years what is the most obvious thing you walk away knowing?

Jason Heyward can't hit.

Especially against lefties.

So what does Maddon do?

With the more than capable Albert Almora available to step right into a role that was practically made for him on this given night, Maddon decides to stick with Heyward.  Heyward ends the at-bat in unsurprising fashion, popping out harmlessly on the infield.

Maddon then decides to bring Almora in to hit for the pitcher spot, while Mike Matheny quickly pulled Lyons for the right handed throwing Bud Norris.  Maddon then wastes Almora entirely by lifting him and putting in the lefty Tommy La Stella who had a rare, pinch hit strike out in making the second out of the inning.

A lazy fly ball later off the bat of Ian Happ (hey, at least he didn't strikeout!) and that was it for the Cubs in the 8th.

I don't understand for the life of me why a guy had an .662 OPS vs lefties a year ago (.377 OPS in a tiny sample this year...barf) was allowed to hit in that situation, specifically when you have a more than capable righty sitting there who hits very well off left handed pitching.  If you hate sacrifice bunts and giving away outs, you should despise this move, especially with only 6 outs to work with.   Give away an out is exactly what Maddon did.

Earl Weaver would be irate.

So instead of hitting a spot earlier Almora instead gets the honor of getting to grab a bat, only to be called back to the dugout without actually getting to take a hack.

Would Almora batting for Heyward have guaranteed a another baserunner?  Hell no, that's not what I'm saying.  But for a manager that is supposed to handle the numbers and matchups so well, that was an embarrassing decision to make against Mike Matheny of all people.

At the end of the day, your starting pitcher walking 7 guys while not lasting 5 innings isn't the recipe for success.  For those scoring at home (and why wouldn't you be?) Tyler Chatwood now has 14 walks in 15.2 innings pitched.  His "stuff" might be as nasty as you'll find but early on we've seen a fastball that begs to get crushed and him not staying in the zone with any regularity.  That combination makes it safe to assume that more than just Coors Field is to blame for his past issues.

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The White Sox were lifeless again offensively against the A's, getting run out of the Oakland Coliseum a second night in a row.  We can bitch and moan about the White Sox offense all we want but looking at the way they lineup, it's not hard to see why they struggle to score with any consistency.  If anything, at least Moncada looked good a second night in a row with a double and his second homer of the young seaosn.

The news of the night though was the A's celebrating their 50th season in Oakland and giving away essentially an entire stadium of free tickets.

That resulted in a massive crowd, 46,208 to be exact, something you almost never see at a regular season A's game.  But what I take away is that this should become more of a thing across baseball.

I can't help but imagine that the A's made a boat-load more money this evening with a stadium full of people who didn't actually purchase tickets than they do on a normal night where 10,000 fans walking through the gates seems like a reach.

All the added concessions, souvenirs, parking and whatever else you spend money on at the ballpark had to have gone up considerably than on an average night.

Now I'm not ridiculous enough to think for a second that this is something that MLB could pull of on a nightly basis, but for teams like the A's, Rays, White Sox, Reds, Marlins and a good amount more who regularly struggle to fill their stands, why not give away a large number of tickets or an entire stadium worth once a season?

We make such a big deal about selling the game to the younger generation.

Do we do that by shortening a game by 6 or 7 minutes with odd rule changes or is that better done by getting kids in a ballpark that might not otherwise be there?

If you like baseball now, chances are you liked it as a kid.  And chances are pretty good that when you were a kid that either your parent, an older sibling or someone brought you to a big-league game a first time that helped you start to love the sport.

Why not instead of sit and look at empty ballpark after empty ballpark like we do just about every spring, more teams do what the A's did on Tuesday night and welcome the community out on a free, or next to free night.

On nights like this I get there would have to be special benefits for the most loyal customers, the season ticket holders, but what is the harm in further exploring this?

It'd only be beneficial in growing the game in the future and if done properly, it'd undoubtedly put more money in these owners pockets as well.