Sunday, July 04, 1999
Heat wave can't dampen Reds' spirits
BY TIM SULLIVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Eddie Taubensee is an optimist. He sees the glass as half-empty and the thermometer as half-full. The Reds catcher is playing baseball's hardest position in the middle of a heat wave, but remains so bubbly he must have come into this world carbonated.
What some people would view as an ordeal, Taubensee regards as an opportunity. He will collapse before he will complain.
“This gives you the chance to lose some weight,” Taubensee said of the sweltering conditions at Cinergy Field. “It's better than Jenny Craig. They say you can lose 10 pounds in 30 days. You could do it here in three days.”
Frightening forecast
Saturday night's first-pitch temperature was a formidable 92 degrees, but the forecast for the next two afternoon games is absolutely frightening. Brian Kammer, a member of the grounds crew, reported that a digital thermometer measured the temperature on the artificial turf at 156 degrees at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Taubensee is OK with this — “I grew up in Florida,” he said — but if his mask starts to melt this afternoon, he might start to wonder what it takes to get a game called on account of heat.
Answer: Maybe when the bases start burning.
“If it gets to 200 degrees, we're not going to play,” Reds General Manager Jim Bowden said Saturday, baking to a golden brown behind the batting cage. “Besides that, we're going to be men. We're so hot anyway — Reds hot — we'll feel right at home.”
Dr. Timothy Kremchek, the Reds medical director, sees no real danger in proceeding with the games, so long as the appropriate precautions are taken against dehydration. Should standard liquids prove inadequate, intravenous fluids will be available.
“We played a game two years ago (against Atlanta) and it was 152 degrees,” said assistant trainer Mark Mann. “We had a lot of guys with cramps. (Reds catcher) Joe Oliver had to be treated for heat exhaustion. His body temperature was 103 degrees.”
That was the afternoon Braves shortstop Jeff Blauser returned to the dugout and announced that his cleats had melted on the synthetic turf. Umpires, Mann said, are even more at risk in extreme heat because they stay out on the field while both teams bat. Accordingly, hitters who want to make inroads with the arbiters are advised to swing at the first pitch. Pitchers should be encouraged to throw strikes on the theory that the hitters will be handicapped by perspiration in their eyes.
Part of the job
“I used to wipe my hands and arms with rubbing alcohol to try to close the pores when I hit,” said Reds coach Ron Oester. “It's really not that bad. It beats the hell out of a 9-to-5 job. You make a lot of money. You could be a construction worker. Concrete gets hot, too.”
Compared to genuinely grueling jobs — ditch digging, oil drilling, the Cincinnati Bengals beat — big-league baseball is a pretty soft life. A wise player realizes he is well compensated for enduring adverse weather conditions, and that no one wants to hear him complain, anyway.
“That's what we get paid to do,” Taubensee said. “And, as a player, both teams have got to go through it.”
Lest anyone think the executives have it easier, Bowden pointed out that his private box is not air conditioned, is open to the elements, and that he'll spend enough time on the field before the game to feel the players' pain.
“I'll come down here and get my feet burned,” he said. “If I wear cheap shoes, and it's 120 degrees, it'll burn right through.”
At 156 degrees, no shoe is safe. These are the times that try men's soles.
Enquirer columnist Tim Sullivan welcomes your e-mail. Message him at tsullivan@enquirer.com.
SULLIVAN ARCHIVE
