During a phone conversation with Jaguars kicker, Josh Scobee, Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski confessed to his counterpart that he always roots for the A’s to miss the postseason.
That’s right, the former first round draft pick (haha Al Davis) has no love for the tenacious and scrappy baseball team that shares a stadium with his Raiders. Could it be that he once had a spoiled batch of Coco Crisp? Maybe he’s still angry with A’s general manager Billy Beane for not signing fellow Polish national A.J. Pierzynski.
Actually, the truth is much more simple: when the A’s play into October, Janikowski has to kick from the infield dirt during home games. It can be assumed that kicking a field goal on dirt is more difficult (and dangerous) than on grass so I don’t blame Janikowski for having these sentiments.
Janikowski’s plight against his professional roommates is looking bleak, though, for the A’s have a three-game lead in their division with 16 left to play. If the A’s reach the World Series, Janikowski would be kicking from dirt for half of the Raiders eight home games this season.
He’s probably not the only annoyed by this either. Certainly Raiders position players are probably none too thrilled about tackling or being tackled on the hard dirt either. The stadium situation in Oakland has been a mess for years. When the Miami Marlins got their own ballpark last year, O.co Coliseum became the sole remaining multipurpose stadium that hosts an MLB and NFL team.
No word yet on whether the A’s will hire some extra security during their home games to ensure Janikowski (or other Raiders) don’t pull any shenanigans and “help” the A’s miss the postseason.
About Ramin Rezvani