reporters and columnists wrote the Yankees hit too many homers

Problem solved.

What a strange age reference: annoying

What a strange age reference: annoying

The first thing I thought when I saw the headline too.

Well, getting old is annoying.

Not getting old has its disadvantages as well.

Not getting old has its disadvantages as well.

Yes, but I'm not crazy about the side effects...

wrong thread!

He is an all-time great, with unique style and quirks—like his incessant stretching.

The stretching was something I really noticed the first time I saw him in person. He'd alternate between touching his palms to the grass and either rotating his torso or doing a side stretch of some sort, and did this all of the time, between pitches sometimes. The first time I saw him I thought he was having back tightness or something, but then I saw him a couple more times and realized that he does it all of the time. He really is a unique and interesting ballplayer.

That stretching is something everyone should try to emulate. I started touching my palms to the floor every night when I was in my early 40's, and if you keep it up, you'd be amazed how much good it can do in preventing back injuries. Just a thought.

I'm with Jolly on this. I broke my back in a car accident in 1969, and got essentially no treatment for it, but was able to do 27 years of stick fighting, starting in 1975. Then the back finally went out, but I am still functional, although stick fighting is now beyond me. I can still do things like touch my toes, even though my back bones and/or discs are starting to calcify, on top of not being in exactly the right positions. I go to a chiropractor every week or two, but if I miss a week or so, it's just that I feel tight, not in pain. I stretch twice every day. If I miss a day or two, my back really lets me know it. That is, I need the stretching at least as much as need the chiropractor (short term; if I just stopped going to the chiropractor at all, I'd probably really notice it in a month), and I also don't have the REAL back problems I probably should have. This is hardly a double-blind placebo-controlled study or anything, but it sure has worked for me. Just for added info, I'm 65 years old. When I was 40, I finished third in a four-state stick fighting tournament. - Brock Hanke

I agree too. I've had back problems off and on since slipping a disc in a pulp throwing contest in university. The year before I put in my first large vegetable garden I was concerned that the constant bending over for weeding, planting and harvesting would be murder on my back, but it was just the opposite.

Before the new year, I had chronic pain in my neck, shoulder and/or lower back...basically from sitting my ass and not ever moving around. Since then, I've done 10 minutes of joint rotations and stretching twice a day as part of my workout routine, and the pain and knots have vanished.

The idea of touching my palms to the floor baffles me.

Can I be sitting on the floor when I do that?

The idea of touching my palms to the floor baffles me.

Can I be sitting on the floor when I do that?

This is me. I've been stretching pretty religiously since my early 20s, and after about 15 years of it I was able to get my fingertips about halfway down my shins. The floor might as well be Mars.

Ichiro! could be younger if he wanted to.

I've been stretching pretty religiously since my early 20s, and after about 15 years of it I was able to get my fingertips about halfway down my shins.

Not that I'm privy to the details, but you're pretty clearly doing something wrong. Hopefully that doesn't come off sounding like a jerk. I'd suggest going to the local Y, or wherever, and taking in a yoga class or two. Not only will you be learning efficient ways to loosen your body, you can get feedback from a trained instructor.

EDIT: To clarify, I was also someone who had a limited range in stretching that I'm certain was due to half-assing it after running. I saw some pretty quick results from yoga. And of course, YMMV.

That stretching is something everyone should try to emulate. I started touching my palms to the floor every night when I was in my early 40's, and if you keep it up, you'd be amazed how much good it can do in preventing back injuries. Just a thought.

Small sample size and all, but my Dad insists that he cured his lower back problems by getting a rowing machine, and using it.
He'd had pain off & on for a long time, then got in a situation (out of gas out on a lake) where he had to row, and as he did, the pain just faded away.
He bought a machine and started using it regularly, and decades later, the pain has never returned.

It's started to show up in a couple of posts here, but it IS important that you do a kind of stretching that addresses your personal body's stretching needs, not just any stretching. I can't do garden work at all. The way my back is messed up, if I have to bend over and support my head and torso with my lower back, I can stand about 3 minutes of it. That's why I have a dishwasher; I can't do it by hand because you have to bend over the sink. The chiropractors have told me I can go back to simple weight lifting (I did three days a week in the gym in my stick-fighting days), but I should start at once a week, and halve the raw weights I was using. They also said NO rowing machines. The particular problems my back has would be made worse. It's a similar position to what you do in gardening. I can touch my toes, but only because I don't hold up my weight with my back. I just let the torso drop. My back bends over well, there's just no power beneath. If you have a serious problem, a chiropractor, an osteopath or a really good back doctor are pretty much a must. Short-term relief can completely mess you up a decade later.

Rusty - Touching your palms to the floor is meant to be done standing with your feel about a foot or two apart (shoulder width is probably fine), and WITHOUT bending your knees. Most people, including me, can't do that. Touching the floor is the same idea, except that only your fingertips have to reach the floor. Then there's touching your toes, which is a little less hard, because all your fingers have to reach is the tops of your toes. If you can't even touch your toes without bending your knees, you have a flexibility problem. Touching your palms to the floor is pretty much the silver ("as in "old guy") standard.- Brock

I broke my back in a car accident in 1969, and got essentially no treatment for it, but was able to do 27 years of stick fighting, starting in 1975.

Am I supposed to be impressed with that? Why don't you try fighting an animate object, you bully.

If Ichiro wanted to win the national stick fighting title, he could. He just chose to hit singles instead.

#19 Reminds me of a taunt in Pete O'Donnell's "A Taste For Death". I've never seen a post that would fight back.

"I've had back problems off and on since slipping a disc in a pulp throwing contest in university" wins the award for most Canadian sentence of the week.

Not that I'm privy to the details, but you're pretty clearly doing something wrong. Hopefully that doesn't come off sounding like a jerk. I'd suggest going to the local Y, or wherever, and taking in a yoga class or two. Not only will you be learning efficient ways to loosen your body, you can get feedback from a trained instructor.

I've been doing yoga for a decade! Trust me, reaching halfway down my shins is a vast improvement from my earlier life, which included things like tearing both my hamstring trying to do a hurdler's stretch when I was 11.

I've had back problems off and on since slipping a disc in a pulp throwing contest in university

Some of those old mags could reach around 300 pages, I gather, but still, it's not like you were throwing NYC phone books, was it?