we all know that tonight, tomorrow and possibly friday are supposed to be brutally hot & humid.
my peppers play dick stark's o's tomororw (on wed.) and i just wrote him that we should probably take precautions. dick hasn't had a chance to see my note yet, let alone respond, but i expect he'll say sure.
i also thought i'd pass some of the ideas along - and get other teams to think about perhaps doing similar things in this heat.
1. if you have a field where there's a shady & sunny dugout, consider having the two teams share the shady one.
2. on sunday, my 48 vets team played the thunder - and they did something that i thought was exceptionally smart (besides beat us) and that was that they brought and set up one of those tall, lightweight party tents. there are no dugouts at the voorheesville satellite field and so they gave themselves a little dugout - and some welcome shade. they also had a boombox playing 60s hits. (the reason for their victory must lie in those two decisions.)
3. along those lines, guys may want to bring folding chairs that they can put in whatever shade is around - that way they won't have to sit in hot dugouts, however shady.
4. often managers bring water/gatorade - but for these games, let's encourage everybody to bring some. also some carbohydrates - potato or bagel chips & trail mix.
5. managers should encourage guys to tell them or their teammates if they’re feeling woozy.
6. have liberal substitution policies so guys are not on the field for all 7 innings if possible. if one team has, say, only 9 guys and another 12, maybe the team with 12 can have someone spell an opposing player or two for an inning in the field.
7. umpires should be encouraged to take breaks wiith the teams - and have all the water/gatorade they want.
8. umps should also be empowered - as i think the are- to stop the games if the heat is too oppressive.
guys, heat stroke - and heart attacks that often go with them - can hit fast. no win or complete game is worth it.
i know that first-hand. in texas, we routinely played in high 90s heat but it was usually dry heat. in my very last regular season game there, it was 104 and - unusual for san antonio - humid. our shortstop, who was our strongest hitter (routinely hit a few homers a year), just collapsed in the fifth inning. went right down on the field, fast as you can snap your fingers. emt's got there in time. turned out he hadn't eaten a thing before the game. (again, have some carbohydrates - marathoners take them for a reason.) it was spooky moment. don't want anyone to experience it.
i'm sure there are things i've left out. guys can add them in reply. but be smart and do all you can to stay cool and help your teammates stay cool and we should make it through these next few days.
how could i forget this classic way of staying cool?
in his fine biography of babe ruth, robert creamer writes that the babe had his own ingenious way to stay refreshed while playing afternoon games at yankee stadium - when woolen uniforms were the thing and dugout fans, let alone airconditioning, were unimagined.
babe would have a bucket of icewater at the end of the bench, into which he put a big head of cabbage before the game. with each new inning, before he ran out to right field, he would peal an icy wet leaf off the cabbage and slip it in his cap - and, voila, have an ice-cooled head as he trotted out to his spot.
