Chapman thinks empty ballparks give A's advantage: 'We're used to' it

Matt Chapman thinks a lack of fans in attendance at Major League Baseball games this summer could actually help the Oakland Athletics.

"I think it's going to play to our advantage - a lot of our games are pretty quiet in general," the All-Star third baseman said Thursday, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. "We're used to not having too many fans at the games."

The Athletics have long struggled to draw fans to the cavernous Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

Oakland regularly sports some of the worst attendance figures in baseball. It ranked 24th out of 30 teams last year, averaging just 20,521 fans per home game. Only two regular-season contests against the San Francisco Giants and the American League wild-card game drew crowds of more than 40,000.

With that in mind, Chapman believes his team can succeed during the unique season, while its opponents might be disoriented by the emptiness.

"I think other teams coming in and seeing no fans and a big huge empty stadium and it might be a little cold at night, it just plays to our advantage," Chapman said. "We're used to playing there. We're used to playing in front of however big or small a crowd is."