The man behind the Twitter handle @ColiseumSewage wants the public to know that he's more than just a man walking around the O.Co Coliseum in Oakland in a gross sewage outfit complete with clumps of toilet paper hanging from his cheeks.
It may seem like the hulking man in the odd costume and the green A's T-shirt is mocking the antiquated stadium along Interstate 880 and the much-publicized sewage debacles during two games within the last year - plus a third instance on Saturday during the heavy rainstorm when standing water and possible sewage seeped into the A's coaches room and visitor dugout.
But C. Sewage (as he's been known to sign his letters) insists that his nickname is simply a way to gain attention to an issue he strongly supports: Keeping the Athletics in Oakland.
"I love the A’s and Athletics fans because they’ve fed me so well for years," he told NBC Bay Area in a series of interviews and emails. "Lately, I’ve been hardly able to contain my enthusiasm for the team because they’ve been doing so well. Sometimes I get too excited and the pipes just can’t hold me back, and I wind up spilling into inconvenient places and nearly drowning (coach) Mike Gallego."
MORE: Sewage Spill Causes Stink at Oakland A's, LA Angels Game
The "sewage," he explained, is spewing from the mouths of city leaders, who he feels haven't managed the Coliseum properly and not been effective advocates to keep the team in Oakland. And the sewage, he said, is also coming from team owner Lew Wolff, who wants to move the team about 45 miles south to San Jose. That plan is currently stalled as it has been blocked by Major League Baseball.
The man behind the costume, which he wore to the A's AL West-clinching game on Sunday, doesn't want to reveal too much about himself, other than he is 36, works in marketing and, obviously, has a girlfriend who can sew. (She is the mastermind behind the artistic flair of the costume.)
He started the Twitter handle @ColiseumSewage on Sept. 19, the day after a sewage spill in the A's dugout caused a stir at the stadium. It has since been revealed by Matier and Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle that aging pipes didn't cause the problem. It was a blue kitchen towel stuffed down a toilet that caused the stinky seepage.
Another sewage eruption, however, arose at the Coliseum in June, when a toilet backup spilled into the team's clubhouses, bathroom, umpires' room and managers' offices, sending the Seattle Mariners and A's running around in their towels for higher ground.
MORE: "Flushable" Wipess Clogging Sewer Systems Across Nation
Sports
Sewage, which NBC Bay Area is identifying him on second reference, has more toilet puns than a preschooler telling potty jokes.
Stop clinching! Relax those muscles. #Athletics win the west! Now let it flow, and lets flush the completion in the ALDS! — Coliseum Sewage (@ColiseumSewage) September 22, 2013
On a more serious note, Sewage said that he's just a guy who loves Oakland and wants to make sure the city he has watched evolve get the respect it deserves. He also wants to make sure the A's fans are heard instead of mocked -- even if he has to string clumped-up toilet paper to his beard.
"Moreover," he said, "I want to help encourage the people of Oakland and the Bay Area to take pride in our community, to value what we have, and to fight to keep our unique culture from being stolen by people who don’t get us. I am one of thousands. I speak only for me, but I believe my opinions should matter. If it takes dressing up as a sewage leak, making potty jokes, and becoming the embodiment of civic leader’s neglect of their people and infrastructure to save the Oakland A’s, then I’ll do it."
