Chicago Cubs deny report they cut grounds crew hours to sidestep Obamacare
By Dan Zinski
Tarpgate has reached the “shady, possibly-politically-motivated conspiracy” phase after a report by the Chicago Sun-Times claiming the Cubs cut grounds crew hours to avoid incurring extra costs under the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare.
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Last week, the Cubs grounds crew garnered unwanted attention when their failure to properly cover the field during a sudden cloudburst led to the suspension of a game with the Giants. The game was ultimately finished two days later after the Giants protested.
The clusterbleep led the Sun-Times to look more closely at the staffing of the grounds crew, and their report found that offseason reorganization led to the Cubs cutting hours for members of the crew, setting off a chain reaction that may have led to Tarpgate.
But the Sun-Times report took it one step further, claiming the Cubs cut grounds crew hours in order to avoid having to pay health care costs under Obamacare.
The Cubs came out hard against the report, denying that Obamacare compliance had anything to do with their reorganization (via ESPN.com):
"“We’ve made some organizational changes to make sure our scheduling is in line,” Green said. “If we want to be a successful, functioning, profitable operation, you have to make sure your personnel and workforce is in line.“Anyone in this organization who would even suggest that it was Obamacare and tried to make this a situation about work hours at the expense of guys who are widely viewed as the best in the business, it’s unfortunate.”"
The Cubs also took the opportunity to deny allegations that the grounds crew was understaffed the night of the snafu that led to the suspended game, pointing to MLB’s own finding that the gaffe resulted from the tarp not being properly spooled after its previous use.
So, it wasn’t the Cubs’ greed or lack of liberal conscience that led to the tarp disaster, it was the underpaid health-care-denied grounds crew’s ineptitude. Message received, Cubs.
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