That's Fit

Although much of my sports attention is zeroed in on the NBA finals at the moment, I still try to keep up with what's going on in baseball. It's been a somewhat unusual year in MLB, but there are some things that are refreshingly unchanged. You can still expect to see sports fans (young and old) smiling through nine full innings of play, there are still plenty of great diving catches being made and old school hustling around the bases going on, and players and coaches are still littering dugouts with the shells of discarded sunflower seeds.

Good thing, too, since sunflower seeds are far more than just something to chomp on during tense moments in a game. Researchers from Northwestern University in Illinois found that these magnesium-rich seeds can help regulate blood sugar, thus reducing the risk of metabolic syndrome by as much as 31 percent.

Pumpkin seeds -- a sometimes alternative for sunflower seeds in some dugouts -- also offer similar protection against metabolic syndrome, as do flax and sesame seeds. Chewing tobacco, as you might expect, offers nothing in that regard, and instead offers the increased risk of mouth cancer. Stick to the seeds, kids.

There's a minor-league ball park near my home. It makes for cheap summer entertainment for my baseball-loving son. Last year, there was a booth set up near the food court that educated kids on healthy eating. But when you ventured into the actual food court area, the choices seemed to consist solely of nachos, hot dogs, and buttery popcorn. Some ballparks even offer all-you-can-eat seats which, for some, leads to even more calories than they would normally consume at the park.

Shape Magazine offers some better alternatives when eating at the ballpark. They also offer suggestions for carnivals, food courts, and movie theaters. Consider food at these outings a rare treat -- often, even the best choices aren't very healthy.

A few months back I went to a place I like to call "Man Heaven" and wrote a few articles about it. Man Heaven is also known as ESPN: The Weekend at the Disney Hollywood Studios in Florida. The event was jam packed with dozens and dozens of your sports lovers' heroes from today and yesteryear. Football, basketball, baseball, tennis, hockey and golf stars flooded the theme park with ample opportunity for each Disney guest to get up close and personal with the athletic love of their life.

Of course, there were also a ton of female fans decked out in their team jerseys, but truly....this event was for boys. Young boys, elderly boys, and every boy in between. I saw big groups of men in coordinating jerseys riding the tram to the park, and then I saw tons of father/son duos shooting baskets with their favorite hoops star.

The event isn't until early next March, so you'll have plenty of time to book your air, hotel, and ticket reservations. He'll have lots of time to squirm with anticipation for the big event. Trust me.....if your guy loves sports, he will love ESPN: The Weekend and love you even more for sending him to it.

My husband, a baseball editor for a national newspaper, taught our daughter how to say "pitching mound" when she was about 18 months old. We are lucky to have a field down the street. We drive by it every time we go somewhere in the car and every time we do, our daughter yells "pitching mound!" with gleeful delight.

We've now started making treks on foot down to the field on a semi-regular basis. And our little girl, now almost three, is learning about the rest of the landscape covered with red dirt and grass and framed by two dugouts. She isn't skilled enough to hit yet. Not even off of a tee. But boy do we run those bases. Over and over. And we jump on them. And we cheer at home plate.

By the time we've walked there and back and run the bases a few times, I figure we got more exercise than most players do during a whole game. And it certainly didn't take nine innings to do it. Quick and easy workout, and the kid's exhausted. Perfect!

It's hard enough to find sunglass that look good and feel good -- it gets even more complicated when you throw sports into the mix. You need to make sure your sunglasses stay put, of course, but if you're doing something active, like running, you also want shades that don't weigh too heavily on your nose or cheekbones.

Oakley has always made a point of designing glasses that stay where they need to be, which is why they've been popular with professional baseball players, volleyball players, and golfers. Take a look through the gallery and see which ones suit you and your sport!

I just returned from a place I've decided to be Man Heaven. Man Heaven is a place where loads and loads of men dressed in various colored athletic jerseys giddily board trams with feverish excitement to spend time with their favorite sports heroes. These men were squirming in their seats, beaming bright smiles and high-fiving their way all the way to the entrance gates of Disney World's Hollywood Studios. ESPN the Weekend is Man Heaven.

The weekend was filled with endless opportunities to meet, train with, question and listen to America's favorite ESPN stars: Donovan McNabb, Tony Gonzalez, Hershel Walker, John Stockton, Cal Ripken Jr., Chris Carter and more. Oodles of ESPN Sportscasters took stages across the park hosting their own scheduled and aired ESPN shows, and also hosted other fun question and answer sessions with the stars of Man Heaven.

The rookies on the New York Yankees team have to set their alarm clocks a little earlier than the rest of the team. Why? They have an extra morning workout to get to. Their morning routine includes a mile run, ab work, mountain climbers (calisthenics), and working on fitness machines.

While the morning hour may be a bit unwelcome, players are seeing the perks of their extra efforts. Their endurance and strength is improved. So much so that other players, including some veterans, are voluntarily joining in the morning workouts.

You can take a tip from the Yankee's and add some early morning exercise to your "spring training." Set your alarm clock an hour or so earlier and go for a walk, follow a fitness DVD, hop on the treadmill, or visit your gym. It will help you feel more energetic throughout the day!

If you're one of the six million Americans who've never gone to a ballgame and enjoyed peanuts because you're allergic, you may soon be able to sing the "buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack" line and actually mean it.

Thanks to a scientist from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a new processing technique has been developed that effectively eliminates the allergenic components of peanuts.

Though human trials have yet to be conducted, scientists are hopeful that this process will yield similar results to those found in lab animals and, if so, the allergy-free nuts will be available to consumers in the next 2 years.

Unless you live under a rock, or if you're just not all that concerned with sports, you've undoubtedly heard about the already infamous Mitchell Report. This report is the result of former U.S. Senator George Mitchell's investigation into steroid use in major league baseball. And let me tell you ... bobble-heads are already rolling.

Named in the investigation were a total of 89 big league stars, including Barry Bonds (no surprise there), Miguel Tejada and veteran ace Roger Clemens. Bonds had already come under fire for steroid use, but Tejada and Clemens had managed to stay under the radar until the release of this report. Sports writers around the country publicly lambasted these athletes, particularly Clemens, for their use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Baseball is supposed to be a pure game; a ball, a wooden bat, and some good hand-eye coordination. It's the only sport that has its own theme song, and going to a ballpark to see a game has long been a family affair. Will this report be the ruination of the game? Or, perhaps the better question is: Will these players, and their use of illegal steroids, bring the sport to its knees? Or will the wrongdoings of these playrs be forgotten and forgiven by future generations, as was the case with the Black Sox scandal. I suppose time will only tell. But, inasmuch as the future of baseball is in question, the pure image it once maintained is certainly now a thing of the past.

Ever wonder how baseball players like Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds can line up and hit all those home runs with superhuman effort? In a way, maybe they are superhuman, since the products used to greatly enhance those home run-hitting abilities really don't put them on the same playing field as those that don't.

Steroids, which can boost muscle mass by 10 percent (sometimes more) can boost the home run percentage of batters by more than 50 percent, according to a U.S. physicist.

Notice it did not take a medical expert to say that, but a scientist who studied the relationship between muscle mass and the speed of one's baseball bat swing. Result: that ball's speed can be much faster as it leaves the bat due to the faster swing caused by the greater muscle mass.

That takes all the fun out of sports equality, though -- right? Or is that a concept that no longer has any meaning?

In young athletes, injury is always a concern. But a recent study found that young baseball players may actually get some protection from pitching. Concerns about overuse injuries are common in young pitchers, but the study found that these young athletes grew, they actually retained the ability to externally rotate the shoulder. Though we typically lose this kind of rotation, as well as flexibility, as we age, it appears that this external rotation may actually protect the shoulder.

That said, overuse is still a concern. Health experts say that if a child pitches extensively, plays several leagues, or pitches year round, they're still at risk for injury. Commonsense, I think.