DUE DILLIGENCE:

Weird science: Alou is just myth-informed (GREG COUCH, May 13, 2004, Chicago Sun-Times)

[M]ight urine actually help build calluses?

"Urine is acidic in nature,'' Fernando said. "But it's not accepted in Western medicine. I think it's more of a superstition.''

Apparently, if you were to break down urine, you would find that it doesn't have antibodies, and that it's 95 percent water. Alou said it was just like water.

Yes, 95 percent of it. It's the other 5 percent, though, that's troublesome.

But if urine is acidic, then wouldn't it have some effect toward toughening hands? Wouldn't Alou legitimately be finding some value in it?

"Well,'' Fernando said, "it would be better to just cut open a lemon and rub the juice on your hands.''

Meanwhile, even if this remedy is a myth, that's not far off from the typical home-remedy type of things baseball players do. No one has more superstitions than baseball players, but there are also apparently a handful of unproven remedies and other odd actions that players think are based in science and not astrology.

"Ted Williams used to take an empty Coke bottle and rub it up and down on his bat,'' said Jimmy Piersall, one of Williams' former teammates. "You know the lines that go up on the bat? This would make them close together so it wouldn't chip.''

What about you, Jimmy?

"I did a lot of crazy things, but never anything like that,'' he said. "I did things like stepping on third base all the time. I put little tacks in my bat, and that was like corking. I used to take a sledgehammer to the bat to flatten [the barrel] out.

"I had a great year doing that, until they caught me. But, no, I didn't do anything like Alou. My father was a house painter though, and the only way to mix paint back then was to urinate in it.''

Not that again.

Nolan Ryan used to have a chronic problem with blisters and also needed to build calluses.

The urine cure?

No. He used to soak his fingers in pickle brine. Piersall said a lot of pitchers used to do that.

There is no evidence that that would do any good.

In his classic text, How I would Pitch to Babe Ruth, Dr. Seaver says of Rogers Hornsby:

As far as I'm concerned, Hornsby's theory of never reading or going to a movie in order to save your eyes hurts an athelete more than it helps him. [...] As for Hornsby's refusal ever to drink a beer, well, it's fine to take care of your body but nobody likes a fanatic.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 13, 2004 10:28 AM