May 14, 2008

Jim Souhan: Cuddyer plays guinea pig to latest sports innovation
JIM SOUHAN, Star Tribune

Hitters will adopt virtually any ritual, talisman or superstition to get an edge: steroids, HGH, greenies, pine tar, high-tech batting gloves, rubbing the barrel of a bat on a bone, extra batting practice, human sacrifice, soft toss, hitting off a tee, watching tapes, calling relatives for swing tips, changing types of wood and lacquer, wearing a lucky T-shirt, and -- in the case of the Chicago White Sox -- arranging their bats around a couple of blow-up dolls in the clubhouse.

Carlos Gomez appears to sniff his bat on the way to the batter's box. Justin Morneau wears a hockey T-shirt honoring one of his favorite players. Chuck Knoblauch adjusted his batting gloves until he cut off circulation. Now Michael Cuddyer is going where no Twin has gone before in his search for that extra hit or two a week:

He's trying a sports version of orthodontia.

Cuddyer heard about a bunch of Red Sox and Tigers who have begun wearing a specialized mouthpiece to improve their hitting, fielding, throwing and general range of motion. He submitted to tests and a 75-minute fitting process, has begun wearing a prototype and hopes to begin wearing the real mouthpiece soon.

"Manny Ramirez is a big endorser of it," Cuddyer said of the Red Sox star. "Seven Tigers are wearing it, a few Toronto players are wearing it, and I thought, 'Well, I'll give it a shot.'

"The way it's been explained to me is it relaxes your jaw, which relaxes your face, which relaxes your shoulders and traps [trapezius muscles], and all of that is a key to athletic performance."

Twins strength and conditioning coach Perry Castellano is besieged with the sports world's witch doctors and snake-oil salesmen, entrepreneurs pushing the next big thing.

Some work. Some are placebos -- effective because they increase an athlete's confidence, not because they are effective in and of themselves. Some are fraudulent.

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