The Red Sox don’t play the Athletics until April 20, but Oakland already is trying to hype up their series by referencing an NFL scandal that had nothing to do with either team.
The A’s official Twitter account poked fun at the infamous “Deflategate” scandal the New England Patriots were heavily scrutinized for around the league in 2015. And even though baseball, and the city of Oakland, had nothing to do with it, that didn’t stop the A’s from getting their jab in against Boston.
It’s certainly an interesting way to try and inflate a series — especially when Oakland isn’t even averaging 19,000 fans in paid attendance after drawing the second-fewest number of fans in all of baseball in 2017. It also doesn’t help the A’s are 2-3 to start the season and finished the 2017 season with a 75-87 record.
Aside from using an event that didn’t even happen in the same league, let alone the same city, the tweet features second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who is currently on the disabled list after undergoing offseason knee surgery, and might not play in the series.
If Oakland is trying to attract fans to its stadium, maybe referencing the Tuck Rule game in some fashion might have helped, considering it was the Oakland Raiders that were the victim of Tom Brady and the Patriots during the 2001 AFC Divisional Round game.
