Hot weather a concern for baseball players

Adam Godwin sports column

They’re young and they’re professional baseball players; however, members of the Chattanooga Lookouts and every other Southern League team aren’t immune to weather conditions, especially extreme ones like the heat that’s blanketed the South the past couple of weeks.
“The heat has been brutal,” Lookouts outfielder Adam Godwin said Thursday, just before he and his teammates headed to the ballpark in Huntsville.
“It’s been miserably hot ever since we went to Montgomery earlier in the month.”
Godwin said hot weather concerns everyone.
“Our trainers, strength and conditioning coach, our manager and all our coaches see to it that we have healthy meals before and after games and proper snacks in between.
“The situation is about half-and-half; they do their part and it’s up to us to look after ourselves properly.”
Many fans don’t realize that ballplayers’ work days don’t start when the first pitch of any game is thrown.
“Even though we play mostly night games, we’re at the ballpark at 2 p.m.,” Godwin said. “We’re on the field until about 4:30, and then we go back to the clubhouse. My goal then is to cool my body down as quickly as I can, so I take a cold shower and then rest until it’s time to go back out.”
Starting in the Montgomery series, Godwin was almost as hot as the weather.
“I was on a roll and had my average above .280, but then I went on a 2-for-25 skid the last few games,” Godwin said. “You can’t explain it.
“Some games the hits fall; some games they don’t. We can’t dwell on what happened the night before, as I’ve said for years, we have to be ready to produce in that day’s game.
“This game is something. One day everything’s great; in the next game, it turns around and bites you in the butt. You just have to keep working hard hoping for better days.”
As usual at this point of the season, Godwin has shed a few pounds.
“That’s just in my make-up,” he said. “I try to bulk up in the off-season, but I’m going to lose five to 10 pounds every season. I feel good and am ready to play, but I realize there’s nothing I can do to keep from losing weight.”
Godwin was anticipating a return to Chattanooga after Friday night’s game against the Stars.
“We’ve got the Carolina Mudcats coming in over the weekend,”Godwin said. “That’s the Cincinnati Reds’ team in the Southern League.”
Chattanooga was the longtime home of the Cincinnati affiliate; the current Lookouts’ parent club, the Los Angeles Dodgers, was represented by Jacksonville for several years before moving to Chattanooga this season.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we go to the ballpark, play hard and expect to win,” Godwin said.