Heat and Hydration

[MCLEOD36]

Guys.

In the hot summer months, I dont care how tough you are, bring a cooler with some form of hydration, including bananas, ice, gatorade/similar and something to cool you down.

I had two catchers darn near drop on me in a double header this weekend, and I DIDNT FEEL THAT HOT EITHER.....in the second half. If just pays to bring that stuff and get the heck out of the sun, sometimes between innings....

[dawg-man]

MCLEOD,

My son played in a tournament in Miami a few years back in early August. I do not know how you guys down there do it. I am from Georgia and we have heat and humidity but nothing like you guys do. We had a few brief showers at times and then it was almost unbearable. My hat is off to you and all your brethren down that way.

[Umpire in Chief]

Also bring enough for your partner too. HokieUmp and I had a 1:00 & 3:30 DH in nearly 100 degree heat with 100% humidity this past Saturday. And its only June, we've got a few more months of this ahead.

Keep an eye on your catchers especially the younger ones. ask them how their doing. Let them know if they need time for anything they'll get it.

Ignore proper between inning positioning if you have to. I found shade infront of one of the teams dugouts and stood there between innings. That team's coach, who I have a pretty good relationship with told me, "Warren you can use my shade but I'm going to need some more calls to go my way."

Wouldn't you know it in the bottom of the 5th with the visitors ahead by 11 and 2 outs we had a series of calls and a ball thrown into DBT which all went their way. After that half he told me he was just kidding and was half way looking forward to getting out of there.

[MCLEOD36]

Dawg, believe me, I have been here for 22 years and thought I was fine, but man it hit me like a ton of bricks... My partner was 22 and I told him (and as Warren says) I always will bring you gatorade; bananas; energy chews and ice if needed. When he gave me the thumbs up sign in the fourth....I just held onto my knees and went.... in between innings, i gotta sit in the shaded dugout.....

I also bought a fan that spritzes and a iced collar...which has helped over the past couple of games.... I just dont like guys dropping either. It was like that catcher, he was a young kid 22, that started to lean and told him to get in the dugout and I would allow reentry if necessary. At the end of the game, he goes you know, you guys really do care about us, and that was all the thanks I needed to sign up for another one this weekend...

[BrianC14]

I attended a Frontier League game on a recent Sunday, with temps in the mid 90s and humidity... well, let's just say that gills started to form....

The game was played on one of those plastic fields - the newer kind of turf field - it HAD to be 15 to 20 degrees warmer on the surface of the field

I arranged to meet the umpires afterward - the game went 10 innings, and lasted more than 3 hours. In speaking with the umpires after the game, I found out that the home plate umpire had worked the plate the day before (similar temps/humidity) that went 13 innings.

All I can say is that I'm glad to be back in a semi-arid climate. :shakehead:

[MCLEOD36]

We have an older field in Miami that is astro turf, or I should say field turf, but the older/uncared for kind, and I swear my shoes stuck to it last summer.

[zm1283]

I'd rather have it be 95 with 100% humidity like it has been here lately than like I had a few times in the spring - 34 and spitting snow with the wind blowing 30 miles per hour.

I used to catch, so I'll take the heat any day.

[okump96]

NO SIR!! give me cooler temps anytime! i can always add another layer if needed, but when its HOT you can only take off so many layers before you go to jail.

[LMSANS]

NO SIR!! give me cooler temps anytime! i can always add another layer if needed, but when its HOT you can only take off so many layers before you go to jail.

Amen!:shakehead:

[MCLEOD36]

LOL OKUmp that is just not right..... I have always worn compression under my shirt, and these days, that is not even cooling me down. So last game opted to take it off and it was only cooler in the rain....

ZM, I broke down and bought a plate coat, I will use it in Miami likely 3 games a year..... ie January when it gets down to a blustery 70

[Umpire in Chief]

Another thing which happened in my hot as hell game Saturday. I was wearing a moisture wicking shirt & undershirt, moisture wicking compression shorts, and moisture wicking long baseball socks. Gravity pulled all that sweat straight down and my plate shoes were waterlogged. They sloshed as I stepped. When I changed my socks my toes were prunes.

[zm1283]

To be honest, the heat doesn't even really bother me that much. The worse part of the heat is having so much sweat running down your face where you have to go wipe your head off between every inning.

I HATE cold weather. Being cold is so much more miserable than being hot.

[gixxershane]

I watched a program on sports science the other day about performance sports wear for the heat.

DO NOT WEAR CLOTHING THAT PULLS SWEAT AWAY FROM YOUR BODY!!!!!

This works against the bodys natural cooling system. Your body will now use all your energy to cool your body.

I forget the name of the clothing line is like armor x or something.

What they did for the experiment was put a treadmill in a room with heat lamps and the temp was 125f. The host swollowed a temp sensor to get the core body temp. In less than 20 min he collapsed and his internal body temp was 104f..

Then the take this special clothing and get a guy that runs extreeme triatholons he was in there for like an hour, and his core temp didn't break 99 (f). Then the host did it again and his temp didn't break 99 (f)

I will try to find it when I get home and post a link

[gixxershane]

found it

i was way off on the name...lol.. the product is called X-bionic.

here is a link to the product info

http://www.shopx-bionic.com/about-x-bionic

here is a link to a actual shirt

http://www.shopx-bionic.com/shop-the-store?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=98&category_id=17

this looks like the shirt that was on the show

http://www.shopx-bionic.com/shop-the-store?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=85&category_id=15

kinda pricie but if it works the way it claims, it would be we great for you guys that do this in the nasty heat!!!

Edited June 25, 2009 by gixxershane

[MCLEOD36]

That is interesting and thanks for hte post Gixxx..... $100 a shirt.... frick, my wife would shrink it in the dryer lol..

[BrianC14]

$130 for a freakin' T-SHIRT!?!

PT Barnum was right.

It oughta come with a case a beer and greens fees for 18 at the course of my choice.

[gixxershane]

can you put a price on saving your self from heat stroke???

If your core body temp won't rise more than 2 degrees, when you work the plate in 100+ degrees days, what is that worth to ya?? How about working a double header in thoes temps???

This could be just as important as the West Vest!!

I just relayed the info :D

[jjb]

First, Shane: thanks for the info: we know you were just passing it along. Knowledge is power.

Second, 100 bucks is a lot for a T-shirt (and I work in 100+ weather a lot).

Third, I think I'll wait for some of you rich kids (y'know, the guys with the leather ball bags) to get one, and tell me if it's worth it.

Fourth, while it was an interesting info-mercial, I'd rather they use the same guy running under the heat lamps, wearing, and then, not wearing the shirt. . Measuring a commentator's temperature without a shirt, and comparing that to a Super-Athalon's temperature with one may be apples to oranges: people's metabolism's differ.

Finally, my underarmor works pretty well in Texas heat. Got them for 15 bucks apiece. I think I'll wait.

[willv28]

Yeah, I wear cheap Under Armor equivalents. It's just because they're thin, not because they wick moisture. I find they only wick enough away to have just enough sweat to evaporate. The other option is trapping the sweat with a sweat soaked shirt and just making things worse.

I like the idea of the iced collar, but from what I see they'd be ugly looking. I might stick with towels in ice water. Though I did see this nifty ice vest that might work nice under my CP if it's thin enough and it uses this tiny chemical ice packs.

[NWA_UMP]

I would be worried that the ice packs would thaw and become another layer of stuff to hold heat/stop air flow. Probably works great for 1-2 innings...but after that I don't know. Would be good to put on after you have been behind the plate for a few innings to give you a cooling effect on the body.

I use the Cramer Cool towels in a cooler filled with ice water. Put my face and head in them between innings and drape it around my neck...is refreshing and helps.

[therefump]

NO SIR!! give me cooler temps anytime! i can always add another layer if needed, but when its HOT you can only take off so many layers before you go to jail.

AMEN, Brother.:P

[NWA_UMP]

You can always put on more clothes...you can only take off so many:wow:

[kwiggie]

I'd rather have it be 95 with 100% humidity like it has been here lately than like I had a few times in the spring - 34 and spitting snow with the wind blowing 30 miles per hour.

I used to catch, so I'll take the heat any day.

I gotta agree with this,

Here in the upper Midwest we only have a couple of months to take in the sun before the "white sh*t" comes again. Shots just hurt worse in the cold!

[SanDiegoSteve]

I feel like sharing this story, as it still burns me up to this very day.

About 10 years ago, I arrived at the ballpark to work the plate of a PONY 13-14U tournament with the (at that time) association president. It was about 100 degrees in the shade, middle of the summer, and I got dressed and then walked over to his car to head for the field. I have my little 6-pack cooler with me, filled with a couple 32oz. Gatorades, as I had (still do have some) health problems back then, and really needed to have cold refreshment handy to rehydrate with. This anal jerk (and you know who you are!) told me that he wouldn't allow me to take my cooler to the field, and to leave it in the car. Said it didn't look "professional." I said to him, "bullsh!t, hey, I need to be hydrated because of my health." He told me to get a drink from the fountain like he would do, which was yucky, warm swill in the public drinking fountain. I told him, "fine, I'll leave it in the car."

During the game, of course, I made sure the snack bar kept the ice cold water bottles coming all day long! That really torqued the guy, I'm sure, but he didn't say anything. He probably knew better, because I really wasn't in a good mood after his tight a$$ed behavior.

[mstaylor]

I would have to agree he was an idiot. No game is more important than staying healthy.