Play It Green

Here’s a look at some numbers behind baseball–from number of balls (ha!) to number of fans, to pounds of glass recycled. Shamelessly lifted from E’s professional-sports-by-the-numbers list.

160,000. Estimated number of baseballs used per season, about 5-6 dozen balls per game.

30. Approximate number of professional baseball and football teams that use artificial/synthetic turf.

80 million. Number of spectators that Major League Baseball attracts each year.

10. Approximate number of the 30 MLB teams that have “gone green,” according to the EPA.

30 million. Number of hot dogs estimated to be sold at MLB parks in 2008.

5,500. Amount of construction waste, in tons, recycled from the building of Nationals Park.

480,000. Pounds of carbon emissions created by the 18-block-long, 100% recycled “green” carpet for the 2008 All-Star Game Red Carpet Parade (though the emissions were offset through carbon credits).

18. Tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions reduced at Fenway Park stadium by installing solar thermal panels on the roof behind home plate.

180. Number of recyclable containers placed throughout the Pittsburgh Pirates ballpark to encourage recycling of plastic bottles and cans.

870. Pounds of glass the Pittsburgh Pirates recycled in 2008. Also recycled were 5,913 pounds of aluminum cans; 33,547 pounds of plastic; 3.61 tons of mixed paper; 193 tons of baled cardboard and skids of catalogs and 20,100 gallons of used cooking oil.

724. Days it took to build the Washington Nationals’ new ballpark, which was the first green professional stadium in the U.S. and LEED-silver certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

30. Percentage of overall water consumption reduced by installing water-conserving plumbing fixtures, saving an estimated 3.6 million gallons of water per year at Nationals Park.

6,300. Number of square feet for a green roof above the Nationals’ concession/toilet area that minimizes roof heat gain.

590. Amount of solar panels installed at the San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park, providing up to 120 kilowatts of energy that will be connected to San Francisco’s power grid.

100,000. Amount, in dollars, AT&T Park saved on garbage disposal fees in one year through its recycling program.

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I was all ready to write about the cacophonous silence coming from baseball players in regards to their teams’ green initiatives. With a LEED-certified stadium (silver) from the Nationals, Minnesota seeking their own new LEED stadium (gold), solar panels at Fenway, green power purchasing and major recycling at the Phillies’ Citizens Bank Park, 95% recycled steel at the Mets new Citi Field, and on and on across Major League Baseball, it seemed like a major loss that no players were acting as the spokespeople, that the conduit between teams’ green initiatives and fans were essentially PR people.

That’s no longer the case. Chris Dickerson from the Cinncinati Reds and Jack Cassel from the Cleveland Indians launched We Play Green, an initiative to get athletes–many of them baseball players–to make green changes to their everyday routines. They’re looking to bring environmental awareness to the locker rooms, to get players to shed their umpteen water bottles in favor of refillable bottles, to recycle, and to leverage their clout to get stadiums and city officials to do more. Geoff Jenkins of the Phillies is on board (his “inspiring” message: “I still recycle”), as is the Red Sox’ Jacoby Ellsbury (”I think many people think plastic just kind of melts away”), Joe Smith of the Mets (who quotes Art Bushwald, “and Man created the plastic bag…”) and Mike Aviles of the Cleveland Indians (”Everyone can do something”). It’s a major step for baseball, to put influential faces in front of these environmental efforts with people who have a lot more clout with fans than the guys and gals in the head office.

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The great bat debate is back, the inevitable facing off of the metal versus wood contingents. Pitchers, purportedly, are cowering in fear , praying that those ball-slamming aluminum bats will be banned in their neck of the woods this year, while college baseball teams are loathe to give up their hitting steaks. New York City banned metal bats in high school games last year, and Chicago is considering a similar ban, thanks to the pushing of one personal injury lawyer who happens to know an alderman. The whole wood-versus-metal issue has been studied extensively and can be mulled over here, but there are a couple of interesting points that stand out. Since aluminum bats were allowed in college baseball in 1974, home runs have increased–by a lot in some cases. During the 1998 College World Series at least 35 out of 111 CWS records were broken, and 17 more were tied. Both teams used Louisville Slugger aluminum bats. Also of interest, thanks to aluminum backs, the inside pitch grew a lot less effective.

But what about the environmental fallout? When it comes to wood, maple bats are known to shatter, sometimes dangerously (fans have even ended up with fractured jaws), and ash bats are the centerpiece of an environmental problem–an invasive beetle called the emerald ash borer that has infected and killed millions of ash trees across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio and other eastern states. So here comes the big environmental solution: bamboo bats. Touted as the environmental alternative to all sorts of flooring and home goods thanks to bamboo’s easy growability (it’s not a tree, but a plant, and a terrifically hardy one at that), the company Sat-Bats claims their bamboo bats are stronger than ash and last longer, and are the environmental alternative to wood thanks to bamboo’s five-year growing period (as opposed to 40 for a mature tree) and low maintenance. Major League Baseball can’t adopt the bats because their one bat restriction is that “the bat shall be one piece of solid wood,” but other leagues can. So far, there haven’t been a lot of takers.

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