April madness.

I learn something about myself during baseball season. Between November and March I eat - maybe - two hot dogs. The rest of the year, I eat about two thousand. That's what baseball does.

April baseball around here is a crap-shoot, since we play it outdoors, unlike those pussies in Canada and (egad) Texas where they have to put a dome over the ballpark and turn it into a stadium. Here, we have either the balls to play in the cold or the intelligence to stay home and watch it on TV. The next game on my Phillies season schedule is Tuesday night.

As of now, it looks like the watching on TV part is the shit. Because valor is not the only thing that discretion is the better part of:

Tuesday: A mix of clouds and sun in the morning giving way to a few showers during the afternoon. High 49F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Tuesday night: A shower or two around the area in the evening, then partly cloudy overnight. Low 33F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%.

Temperatures in the 40s and 20mph winds might make interesting weather for a lot of things, but baseball isn't one of them. At least for me it isn't. I'm a fan of baseball, but not a big fan of sitting in a chair shivering while watching something I can see on TV in my living room.

ANOTHER NEW STUDY

CHICAGO – A striking new study says almost 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese, and the rate is alarmingly higher among American Indian children, with nearly a third of them obese. Researchers were surprised to see differences by race at so early an age. Overall, more than half a million 4-year-olds are obese, the study suggests. Obesity is more common in Hispanic and black youngsters too, but the disparity is most startling in American Indians, whose rate is almost double that of whites.
The lead author said that rate is worrisome among children so young, even in a population at higher risk for obesity because of other health problems and economic disadvantages.
"The cumulative evidence is alarming because within just a few decades, America will become a 'minority majority' nation," he said. Without interventions, the next generation "will be at very high risk" for heart disease, high blood pressure, cancers, joint diseases and other problems connected with obesity, said Flores, who was not involved in the new research.

I'm not going to try to guess what "minority majority" means. You probably have to be a researcher to know.

It's alarming until you consider that the gang of drug-pushers at places like Pfizer and Glaxxo have begun rubbing their hands with glee over the premise that pre-schoolers will now need drugs to control either their eating, cholesterol or some other weight-related malady that they will either make up or find through the pages of research. Another pill for junior.

"Ask your doctor if Puberliv is right for your child."

Possible side-effects include: Stammering, loss of urinary control, attention-deficit disorder, dry mouth, excessive yawning, reluctance to obey orders, stomping their feet and screaming, immaturity, excessive weight loss, inability to control television viewing and randomly kicking their feet.

All of which can be fixed with another pill.

Just like mom and dad.