Author: Kevin B. O'Reilly

For athletes, summer weather and heavy pads can be a deadly combination

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

For KRTeens

If your most strenuous physical activity this summer has been the occasional long walk to the refreshment stand at the local multiplex, then you need to be especially careful when getting in gear for the fall sports season.

For the 1.5 million teen-agers who suit up to play high school and junior high school football every August, it may seem like the worst thing that could happen is to not make the team or, worse yet, get whipped with a wet towel in the locker room after practice.

But the hot, humid late summer weather combined with players’ heavy padding can add up to a formula for tragedy.

Take the case of Craig Lobrano, 17, an all-state football player at Varina High School in Varina, Va. Thirty minutes into an early September practice last year he collapsed from heatstroke. The temperature was only 77 degrees, but the humidity was 85 percent. Lobrano died two days later.

Lobrano is one of 20 young football players who have died of heat-related causes since 1995. Three players died of heatstroke last year, and 100 have died of heatstroke since 1960, according to study released last February by the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research.

Too often, athletes eager to impress coaches and teammates dismiss the warning signs their bodies are give them.

Joshua Krenz, now 21, played high school football for four years in Fall Creek, Wis. He says he saw few of his teammates take themselves out of a practice or a game because of dehydration or heat exhaustion.

“I think there was this attitude that guys wanted to show they were tough, either to impress their teammates or to impress the coach,” Krenz said.

What makes these heat-related deaths especially tragic is that they could be avoided, says Frederick O. Mueller, co-author of the football deaths study and chair of the American Football Coaches Committee on Football Injuries.

“There is no excuse for any number of heatstroke deaths since they are all preventable with the proper precautions,” Mueller said. “Every effort should be made to continuously educate coaches concerning the proper procedures and precautions when practicing or playing in the heat.”

Football players are at an even greater risk of heatstroke than other athletes because they wear so much padding, explained Dr. Robert Gotlin, director of orthopedic and sports rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. He added, however, that athletes in all sports — including other fall sports such as cross country — are at risk when training in hot, humid weather.

Krenz said the Fall Creek High School football team’s practices began in early August, when temperatures would hit highs in the low 90s or upper 80s. Practices were held in the mornings or at night to make it easier on players, Krenz said, but it was still hard.

“We took breaks every half hour or 40 minutes for water and to rest,” he said.

“Thirst is the first sign of dehydration,” Gotlin said. “By that time, you’re already a little bit dehydrated.” Gotlin, who coaches younger football players as a hobby, said players should receive breaks every 15 to 20 minutes for a quick breather and cold water or electrolyte drinks like Gatorade.

Mueller advised that 15- to 30-minute rest periods be provided for each hour of practice.

Krenz, now a senior at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, also said many players arrived in practice out of shape and unprepared for the level of activity football practices require.

“The biggest problem, I think, was that guys spent all summer going to the beach or not doing anything,” Krenz said. “Then they’d come to football practice and try to go at it for a couple of hours like they were in perfect shape. You just can’t do that.”

This is why Mueller recommends that coaches “acclimatize athletes to heat gradually by providing graduated practice sessions for the first seven to 10 days and other abnormally hot or humid days.”

All players should have a complete physical exam before the season begins, Mueller said. Krenz said that players at his school were required to have a physical every two years, and he knew of at least one player who did not return because he failed the physical.

According to Mueller’s report, signs of heat illness and dehydration include nausea, incoherence, fatigue, weakness, vomiting, cramps, a flushed appearance, blurred vision, unsteadiness and profuse sweating.

Aside from heatstroke, another danger to football players enduring practices in August heat is the risk of heart problems. Gotlin said that problems like cardiac arrhythmia — an irregular heartbeat — often go undiagnosed and can be exacerbated or become fatal when players exert themselves in extreme temperatures.

There were six heart-related football deaths in 2001, according to Mueller’s report.
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© 2002, McClatchy/Tribune Information Services

Web site of the week: Blogger.com

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

For KRTeens

While you might tease them for being geeky, in your heart you secretly envy the kids with their own Web sites. You want your own, but the only C++ you know is the grade you got in geometry.

While programs like Dreamweaver have made creating Web pages easier than ever, a new — and more importantly, free — program has come along to give you the power to publish instantly on the Web from anywhere in the world.

It’s called Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/) and it’s used to publish what are called blogs — diary-like sites consisting of short posts, photos, poems or whatever else you want. With Blogger, you don’t even need to pay for an Internet hosting service. You can get a free “blogspot” to post your musings.

Once you’ve set up your blog, all you need to do to update it is go to the Blogger Web site, sign in and start typing. When you’re done, click “Post & Publish” and your latest thought is on the Web.

Blogger also allows you to do a group blog. You and a group of friends can post for fun, or you can use it as part of a group school project.

Be the envy of all your geek friends — become a blogger.
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© 2002, McClatchy/Tribune Information
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All-Star shame

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Bud Selig’s decision to call the All-Star Game is such an unmitigated disaster that it almost boggles the mind to think how he thought he could possibly get away with it. This decision upsets me more than the strike talk and steroid allegations.

Labor problems I can understand. The owners believe they can’t survive unless there’s some kind of salary cap and revenue sharing. The players think the owners are lying and, more importantly, don’t think they can lose. All of this is ugly, sure, and another “work” stoppage (ahem, it’s a “play” stoppage, actually — and that’s not merely a semantic difference) would bring me great sadness. And while it would affect the game in the most obvious way, the roots of the problem lie beyond the game itself and belong in the realm of industrial and labor economics.

How can I get angry about the economic realities of the game and the incentives each side faces to keep fighting and not give in to the other side? Those are the facts, and they probably won’t change anytime soon (if what we know about game theory is true). They impact the game, but they are not about the game.

As for steroids, I think that if major-league baseball has a rule against their use, it ought to do random testing to enforce the rule. It’s only common sense. But I don’t see it as a black mark on the game that some players (to speculate on how many seems irresponsible and silly at this point) use steroids to give themselves an advantage. Players in all sports have always done just about everything to give themselves an advantage, and performance-enhancing drugs are no exception.

There are certain things we think should be allowed (bigger mitts, pine tar, batting gloves and gear, etc.) and others that shouldn’t (spitballs, nail files, steroids, etc.). It’s not a black mark on the game that some folks try to cheat, especially when the game is so unserious about enforcing the rules. Again, steroid use impacts the game, but in the end it’s not about the game.

What Bud Selig, Joe Torre, Bob Brenly & co. did to the All-Star Game is another matter entirely. It was a calculated decision to change the rules of the game — while the game was in progress! — for the convenience of the players and against the interests of the fans both in the ballpark and at home. No, that’s too weak a condemnation. It doesn’t even come close to describing the bile that rises in my throat when I think about what they did.

Baseball, unlike most other sports, is timeless. Part of its charm is that, conceivably, a game could go on forever. The average game may last too long, but I’ve never heard a paying fan complain about an extra-inning game. It’s one of baseball’s little devilish tricks that just when you — as a manager, as a player, as a fan — think you’ve got the right strategy figured out to win the game, something can come up and bite you in the ass.

That big bopper you replaced with a light-hitting, speedy defensive replacement — you’re stuck with him and his .240 on-base percentage for the rest of the game. The star catcher you replaced with a rookie so the old-timer could rest his knees — the only good he can do now is wear a rally cap and yell from the bench, as helpless as a fan in the last row of the park.

That is the essence of managing — making decisions that will be second-guessed as soon as you make them and that just as often go well as badly. The constraint on all of your free-wheeling is that you know that the game must be played. No matter what, a conclusion must be had. It ain’t over ’til the last man is out or the winning run crosses the plate.

That’s the game. That’s the way it has been for about 150 years now. Unless there’s bad weather or there aren’t enough players on the field to finish the game, it goes on. The toil of the player continues, for the pleasure of the spectator. Until last night.

“Oh, but what about the players? They might get hurt!” it’s said. “Oh, but what about the players’ regular managers? They’ll be upset!” it’s said. Yes, they might get hurt — that’s known going in. Every game carries the risk that a player might get hurt. No one must participate in the All-Star Game. Players bluff injuries all the time to get out of it. You don’t have to be at the game. You don’t have to start the game. But you’ve got to finish it.

“Oh, but it’s just an exhibition!” it’s said. Yes, it was. It was an exemplary exhibition of a kind of unthinking arrogance which believes it can go around changing the rules willy-nilly without any repercussions, and without any consideration of the game’s true trustees, the fans who cherish it so deeply.

On very few occasions, I’ve left a ballgame early. Usually, it was because I was so tired or sick that I just couldn’t stick it out. I’ve regretted every single time. Sure, I felt bad because I wasted my money or someone else’s, but more so because when I go to a game I like to watch it from start to end. There is a wholeness to it that I find somehow satisfying in a way I’m not sure how to express.

But whether or not I can stick out the end of a game (and I almost always do), I take for granted that it goes on. Like the sun and the moon and the tides, it started without me and will go on when I’m gone. And like our silly little universe, it too will fade into nothingness eventually. The game will go on no matter how many play stoppages we have, because the love we have for the game far exceeds the greed of the owners and the players.

The only way the game will be destroyed is if the game itself changes. And though I’m sure that superficial changes will be made to make sure that this won’t happen again, the fact that Bud Selig would even think it permissible to unnecessarily conclude a game without conclusion speaks very poorly of his understanding of what makes the game so special.

It’s all about the game. If we forget that, we are truly lost. Selig and friends may have forgotten momentarily, but those 41,000-plus fans in Miller Park (paid for with their tax dollars, incidentally) didn’t forget.

“Let them play!” they chanted. “Let them play!” Music to my ears.

A time to mourn?

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

While some libertarians might want to mourn the Fourth of July, especially in light of the counter-terrorism measures passed after Sept. 11, I still think there’s plenty to celebrate. The Fourth has always been one of my two favorite holidays, along with Thanksgiving.

And while I disagree with much that has fallen under the domestic war on terror umbrella — and about half of what Dubya’s trying to do overseas — Sept. 11 did much to reinforce the spirit of individualism still remnant in the American culture at large. It’s easy to dwell on Ashcroft or the Homeland Security Department (shudder) and think all is lost, but when we consider how easily things could have turned worse, we’ve much to be thankful for.

Yes, there are some 1,200 undocumented Arabs in jail somewhere in New Jersey without access to legal representation. And, yes, the “enemy combatant” move by the Justice Department sets a disturbing precedent, but our freedoms and our way of life have remained largely untouched. People will celebrate the Fourth. They’ll barbecue in the back yard and get drunk, and a few will blow their heads off with fireworks — as is their God-given right.

But there are no internment camps. There is no national ID card. There are no tanks patrolling the streets. The blessings of liberty are still with us. We should remember that and have a good time just to spite those who’d trade liberty for security.

Here’s to our Founding Fathers. Thanks, guys! Have a Sam Adams on me.

Heritage has some hot models

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

No, not that kind. I’m talking about the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, which a group of KRT interns toured yesterday. CDA director Bill Beach gave a very inspiring and impassioned speech about data, and the many helpful models that can be formed using data.

OK, I’m being a little tongue-in-cheek here, but honestly, he was engagingly geeky. If there is one thing journalists miss is how to interpret the actual effects of proposed legislation, whether it’s taxation, Social Security or health care benefits. Crunching the data and using sophisticated models which take into account how changing one variable — say, a change in the capital gains rate — affects all the other variables, can be useful in understanding the dynamic effects of legislation.

Of course, all these models must work in some implicit assumptions about what the effects will actually be (e.g., that a tax cut will broaden the tax base thus increasing revenue rather than cutting it), but it’s still pretty cool.

Joe Camel sez, “Smoking helps government grow, kids!”

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Eerily, both Julian Sanchez and Jacob Sullum point out the idiocy of some of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent comments regarding a bill he signed to increase cigarette taxes to $1.50 a pack.

This is, of course, a nationwide trend. Bloated local and state governments first thre the tobacco settlement money down the drain, and now that revenues have gone down thanks to a sluggish economy, they return to their favorite whipping boys and girls, smokers, to make up the shortfall. But don’t do it! You may not want to quit smoking, but you don’t have to finance this ludicrousness.

There are lots of discount cigarettestores online. Here’s the one Karen recently ordered her smokes from. Puff in peace. Buy online.

If it’s broke, wait to fix it until later

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Walter Pincus reports in the Post that “Congress will put off a reorganization of the FBI and CIA to improve the performance of the intelligence community until it establishes a Department of Homeland Security, according to Bush administration and congressional sources.”

Great idea.

These two mammoth agencies couldn’t tie each other’s shoes, let alone put together the clues necessary to stop the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and now we’re going to complicate everything by creating another agency to battle over turf before even redefining how the CIA and FBI will change — if at all — and what went wrong.

Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

Who will buy a wonderful voucher and put it in a box for me?

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Terry Neal writes in the Washington Post that there is no constituency for school choice. Blacks and Hispanics won’t vote solely based on that issue, and support for vouchers has gone down as the rhetoric has shifted toward using choice to help low-income and minority students. Neal mentions only in passing the “intractable” opposition from teacher’s unions.

Is this argument sound? I have no idea. I sure hope not.

Demand for Old Glory not flagging

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

WASHINGTON — Americans’ demand for flags flown over the U.S. Capitol reached a fevered pitch immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks and continues today, even though the United States has settled in for a long fight against terrorism.

Since the 1950s, the office of the Architect of the Capitol has flown flags over the dome at the request of Congress members. Members make the request on behalf of constituents.

The month of September best illustrates the increased demand for flags flown over the Capitol. For September 2000, the number was 7,000. That figure doubled — to 14,000 — for September 2001.

But even that 100 percent increase doesn’t accurately reflect the increased demand for flags flown over the Capitol, said Bruce Milhans, communications officer in the architect’s office.

"At the end of the [fiscal year, in September] we were hampered because there was such a demand that the supply of flags available to us was exhausted," Milhans said.

For example, after flying the 14,000 flags in September, the office flew only 6,433 flags in October and 4,843 in November, even though the U.S. military was engaged in fierce warfare in Afghanistan.

Traditionally, the demand for flags has gone up during wartime. The single-year record for flags flown over the Capitol is 154,224 in 1991, the year of the Persian Gulf War. The architect’s office typically flies 130,000 flags a year.

The House Administration Committee, known by some as the mayor’s office of Capitol Hill, is charged with ordering the flags flown over the Capitol. But committee staff members had no idea how Americans would respond to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Orders that usually took four weeks to fill were backlogged for months.

"We all were overwhelmed," said Jim Forbes, spokesman for the committee. "We were definitely humbled and overwhelmed by the patriotism of all Americans. We just tried to keep up with supply, and eventually we did."

The committee sent staff members to the Internet looking for manufacturers who could help fulfill the demand for Old Glory. But it was difficult, Forbes said, because the manufacturers must be U.S.-owned and the flags must be made in accordance with official standards of the U.S. government.

"You really can’t just take anyone," Forbes said. "There are many different ways to make flags. We have strict standards that must be met."

Specifically, flags flown over the Capitol must be sewn, not silk-screened.

As the supply of flags has been replenished, the number of flags flown has risen steadily, even though the war has dropped off the front pages.

In May, the most recent month for which the architect’s office has data, 13,045 flags were flown over the Capitol. It’s unclear, though, how many of those flag orders are new and how many are backlogged orders finally being filled.

"We’re still working on a backlog of flags because we did not fully resume until spring," Milhans said. "Inclement winter weather held things up. Now we have tens of dozens of flags here right now waiting to be flown."

Flag orders through the office of Chicago-area Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., have been steady since Sept. 11, according to press secretary Nadeam Elshami.

"We’ve been getting about four or five requests every month, month after month," Elshami said. Before Sept. 11, requests for an entire year were in the single digits.

Every morning, laborers from the Capitol superintendents’ office scale the roof on the south side of the Capitol, near the south edge of the dome on the House side. Three 12-foot tall flagpoles stand there, awaiting another day of activity.

Depending on demand, workers may start as early as 7 a.m., raising flags over the Capitol. Each flag is flown for two minutes, and then lowered. Work ends at 5:30 p.m. or when the allotment of flags for the day is finished, Milhans said, though under extraordinary circumstances work may continue until dusk.

"This is a labor-intensive process, and we’re not going to put our laborers at risk," Milhans said. "If weather conditions are such that it’s hazardous, we don’t allow them to work." That is another reason, Milhans said, why the number of flags flown may have increased in the spring as the weather has improved.

Once the flag is flown, the House flag office prepares certificates authenticating the date when the flag was flown over the Capitol and inscribing any special message requested, Milhans said.

The single-day record for most flags flown was July 4, 1976, the nation’s bicentennial. Twelve temporary flagpoles were erected on the Capitol and 10,471 flags were flown that day.

Flag prices range from $17.49 to $31.91, depending on the size and the kind of material the flag is made of, cotton or nylon.

Families of Sept. 11 victims may obtain, at no cost, a flag flown over the Capitol and delivered in a special box with a certificate signed by their House representative and by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert.
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© 2002, McClatchy/Tribune Information Services

Web site of the week: Inside the teen-age brain

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

For KRTeens

It’s been said that there’s nothing wrong with today’s teen-ager that 20 years won’t cure. New evidence from the field of neurology — the science of the brain — is showing that adage is truer than we may have thought.

While 95 percent of the brain is structured by the time a child is 5 or 6, Dr. Jay Giedd of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., has found that a crucial part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex starts growing again right before puberty.

Giedd’s work was explored in a PBS “Frontline” special, “Inside the Teen-age Brain,” and a companion Web site (http://www. pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/) offers some fascinating insight into how teen-agers’ changing brains affect their lives.

Along with interviews with Giedd and other brain experts, you’ll find lots of interactive goodies, including a virtual map of the teen brain that highlights the parts that experience dramatic change just before puberty.

You’ll also find out why many teens have trouble getting to sleep at night and why teens’ emotional reactions often differ from those of adults.

Teens are often a mystery to their parents, sometimes they’re a mystery to themselves as well. Check out the clues to solving that mystery at this cool Web site.
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© 2002, McClatchy/Tribune Information Services

This summer, keep busy by keeping score

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

For KRTKids

There are lots of neat things to do at a baseball game besides eat hot dogs and peanuts. And keeping score is one of them.

Next time you go to a game, pick up a program — the scorecard is included. Each program comes with instructions on how to keep score, but here are some basics.

The scorecard includes spaces for each player on both teams. Their positions on the field are numbered one through nine, like this: pitcher: 1; catcher: 2; first baseman: 3; second baseman: 4; third baseman: 5; shortstop: 6; left fielder: 7; center fielder: 8; and right fielder: 9.

Across the top of the scorecard you’ll see a number for each inning, first through ninth. The box in the top left corner is for the first batter in the first inning. Fill in the next box for the next hitter, and so on until the inning ends. Then move to the next column for the second inning, and so on.

So to mark an out, you keep track of which position on the field the ball was hit to. For example, a ground ball to the shortstop (6), in which he throws out a runner at first (3), would be marked 6-3. A fly out to center field would be marked by the number 8 with a circle around it.

Here are some common abbreviations to make scoring easier: 1B — single; 2B — double; 3B — triple; HR — home run; K — strikeout swinging; backward K-called out on strikes; BB-base on balls; HBP — hit by pitched ball.

If a player reaches base, you show how he did it by using one of the abbreviations above and tracking the runner’s progress around the bases. Some scorecards already having a diamond drawn for you. Other times, you’ll need to draw it yourself.

Once you’re done scoring the game, you’ll see that you can tell what happened on any play just by looking at your scorecard.

Even if you don’t get every detail right, keeping score is cool and you’ll enjoy the game much more than you did before. Plus, you can relive the game over and over when you get home!

To learn more about scoring baseball, visit The Baseball Scorecard Web site (http://www.baseballscorecard.com/).
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© 2002, McClatchy/Tribune Information
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I’m pleding my time to you, hoping you’ll come through too

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Julian Sanchez has some fine posts on the Ninth Circuit Pledge of Allegiance decision the other day. He writes:

In short, getting rid of the Pledge isn’t an act of pettiness perpetrated by atheist bigots. It is the absolutely necessary removal of a subtle but potent kind of religious indoctrination — and a state-supported means of ostracising children with unorthodox beliefs — from our school systems. Hallelujah.

As I wrote in Julian’s comments section, “under God” irrefutably has a religious connotation. Because almost everyone in America believes in God and raises their children to believe in God, it doesn’t receive much attention, but that doesn’t change the facts of the situation. If the pledge said “under God, father of Christ,” or “under Yahweh, protector of his chosen people, the Jews” or “under Vishnu,” people might understand that a little better.

The one part I’m not sure about is whether it’s actually coercive. Any student who doesn’t want to say the pledge is under no obligation to do so. So what we’re left with is this argument that any student who doesn’t say the pledge will feel ostracized by fellow students, teachers and school officials. I’m not sure if that’s a strong enough link to qualify as coercive state establishment of religion.

Anyway, the thing was cooked up by a socialist. Oh, and here’s what Gene Healy has to say:

I think the Pledge is unseemly, collectivist, slavish, and stupid. But not everything that pisses libertarians off is unconstitutional.

He’s the lawyer of the bunch, so take that for what it’s worth.