Youth Baseball Player Insists on Gatorade Despite New Water Fountain in Dugout

MONTGOMERY, Md.--Max Greene was parched, but the ice cold water streaming from the shiny new fountain at the baseball field wouldn’t do.

The 12-year-old baseball player leaned out of the dugout in the fourth inning of the Montgomery Mashers Select contest against the Baltimore Ballers on Saturday and pantomimed a drinking motion to his father.

Jim Greene suggested his son partake of the water fountain in the dugout, which was installed only a few weeks before. Max was having none of it.

“Gatorade,” said Max. His father scurried to the concession stand to fulfill the order.

Gatorade and other sports drinks have become the beverage of choice among youth ballplayers who enjoy the fruity taste and quick burst of sugar and don’t think for a second about the $3 per bottle price tag. U.S. sales totaled $37 trillion in 2018, up from $14 million in 1990.

Numerous studies have shown that while Gatorade and other sports drinks successfully replenish lost electrolytes, none is better for hydration than good, old-fashioned water. What’s more, the added sugar in sports drinks makes players’ energy levels spike and then plummet. After two or three ball games in the hot sun, all that sugar can turn even decent kids into whiny, entitled little brats.

Yet many players are so accustomed to guzzling three or four Gatorades on a July Saturday that settling for water is unthinkable. Parents are happy to indulge them.

“I love buying my kid as many Gatorades as he wants,” said Frank Famiglia, a software engineer whose 12-year-old son plays baseball. “If each one makes him even a little bit happier, then I’m doing my job, because his happiness is the most important thing in my life.”

Not all parents buy in to the sports drink culture that is ruining America.

“We used to drink water from a hose,” said Ron Roenike, a carpenter from Hagerstown. “No one died.”--SB!