Oakland Athletics' stadium flooding (sewage?), gross

The A's say it's not sewage but it doesn't look pretty.

By Kurt Mensching@KurtJustKurt Sep 21, 2013, 3:43pm EDT

The Detroit Tigers will almost certainly be facing the Oakland Athletics next month in the ALDS. I hope they bring their galoshes.

Visitor dugout in Oakland. Probably 4" of standing water/potential sewage. pic.twitter.com/kAZGQx0cfr
— Glen Perkins (@glen_perkins) September 21, 2013

Yes, that is the visiting dugout of at O.co Coliseum. Yes, that is apparently some dirty water (the A's say it is not sewage, but I wouldn't want to reach a hand in to check), leaving the dugout all but unusable. Yes, that's a mighty gross potential health hazard right there.

Oh, but it gets better.

Susan Slusser of the SF Chronicle tweeted:

Mike Gallego just walked by me, shaking his head, and said, "It's bad." Kurt Suzuki is yelling sewage coming out of faucets now.

The A's told Slusser it was caused by an inch of rain occurring during a short period of time, and it's causing a delay of at least a half hour and possibly more.

But this isn't the first sewage issue at O.co. According to a KTVU/Associated Press article, a clogged pipe caused a backup in June that caused the Mariners and A's to evacuate the immediate area for the Raiders' locker room.

After a hazmat crew inspected the affected areas for E-coli, new carpeting and other work was done in the hallway between clubhouses, and cleanup in the umpires' room.

At the time, coliseum officials claimed six straight home games, which attracted an estimated 170,000 fans, overloaded the plumbing.

The A's would obviously have similarly large crowds during the playoffs -- they've even increased the capacity of the stadium to more than 48,000 by opening the upper deck. That's going to be a lot of flushing.

And that's potentially a big problem. It wouldn't just be a black eye for the A's -- their stadium situation has already made them a punching bag in the media. But it would be a black eye for Bud Selig and Major League Baseball, too, to have all the national media visiting an overflowing outhouse. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem like there's much to be done. "We're in an old facility and things happen. And we continue to work through them," VP of stadium operations at O.Co David Rinetti told KTVU/AP.

So unless MLB tries some radical move like forcing the A's right out of their own stadium, maybe the Tigers' best move would be earning home field advantage in the ALDS to try to limit their exposure to the potential sewage to just one game.