Hey, folks, Ken Arneson here. I'm stepping over from the Will Carroll Weblog for awhile to fill in while Mark takes some time off. Why anyone would go on vacation during a pennant race, I don't know. He's got some wimpy excuse, I forget what it is. Getting married or something.

So about them A's: I was watching the A's game on TV tonight, and tearing my hair out for the first five innings watching the A's fill the bases over and over again without scoring. Mercifully, Jermaine Dye, bad thumb and all, finally came through with a clutch hit, and the A's held on to win.

Miguel Tejada, as expected, got a nice ovation in his first at-bat. But the rest of the game was ugly. A lot of the ugliness came from the fact that the Raiders played at the Coliseum on Saturday night, and the field was horrible. There were bad hops all over the place. Hopefully, A's groundskeeper Clay Wood can take the next 24 hours and smooth out the field.

I was checking out the A's and Raiders schedules, and there are two more instances where the A's have to open a homestand after a Raider home game. The first game will be four days after a Raider game. The Raiders play on September 2, and the A's start a series against Boston on September 6. That gives Wood four days to clean things up, which isn't so bad, I guess.

The last homestand, however, starts the day after a Raider game. The Raiders play on Sunday, September 26, and the A's host the Mariners on September 27. It's hard enough to get Ichiro out without giving him a bumpy infield to hit through.

Raiders are also scheduled for home games on October 17th and 24th. In case of playoffs, break glass.

If the MLB championship ends up being decided by a bad hop caused by the NFL, it would truly be a shame.