BURRILLVILLE – It’s the beginning of April and the Boston Red Sox’s Opening Day at Fenway Park was this past Friday.
With the warmer and sunny weather arriving at some point this month, plenty of kids will be outside playing baseball with family and friends. When I met with the WooSox administration about creating my baseball safety coloring cartoons for publication and distribution they asked me to help promote baseball safety for kids across the region. The two basic messages that are very important for children playing backyard baseball is to always stretch your muscles and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated before, during and after playing baseball. Muscle cramps and strains are very common problems when playing baseball without stretching first and heat exhaustion along with nausea can occur if you don’t stay properly hydrated.
After doing these two simple injury-prevention tasks then kids are ready to play baseball in their backyards. Streets are not safe. Parking lots are not safe. Backyards are much safer locations to play baseball kids.
Play ball and go Red Sox!
Jim Weicherding is a Burrillville resident, and the founder and creator of an award-winning traffic safety effort Seasons of Safety. Weicherding contributes kids’ coloring cartoons, which can be printed and used to help parents discuss safety issues with their children. He has a long list of police officers and firefighters in his family and has worked with law enforcement and firefighters in a creative public safety capacity for more than two decades.
