Add another culprit for Tuesday night’s tarp fiasco at Wrigley Field: President Obama.
Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times the Cubs grounds crew was short-staffed on Tuesday because management cut workers’ hours to avoid paying for health care coverage mandated by the new Affordable Care Act.
A skeleton team of 15 workers scrambled to cover Wrigley Field with a tarp during an unexpected downpour — but couldn’t protect the grounds before they were soaked in the storm.
The tarp mishap led to a protest from the Giants because the game was called as a win for Obama’s hometown Cubs after 4 1/2 innings — the minimum length for an official game — because of poor field conditions. Citing Rule 4.12 (a) (3), which states a game can be suspended due to a “malfunction of a mechanical field device under control of the home club,” the Giants won the protest. The Cubs held on for a 2-1 win when the game was restarted Thursday.
The Sun-Times spoke to three officials from other teams who said the incident showed an “undermanned” grounds crew.
“Embarrassing, and they got caught,” one official said.
The paper claims the Cubs, who score in the top five of money-making teams, cut back on the schedules of grounds crew staff so they would not work more than 130 hours a month.
The limit allows major employers to skirt the requirement for health benefits under ObamaCare.
Cubs spokesman Julian Green acknowledged that the team has made scheduling changes to assure “operational efficiency,” but denied that Tuesday’s tarp fiasco had anything to do with the Affordable Care Act.
“This unfortunate incident had nothing to do with staffing hours,” Green said. “There was a bizarre weather system — we had a microburst of rain that wasn’t in the forecast and the tarp wasn’t pulled until well after it started raining, which added to the challenge.”
Green added that the cover had been improperly stored, leading to a further delay.