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July 9, 2008
Dickerson's push helps Bats go green
Recycling, plastic are targetsBy C.L. Brown
Outfielder Chris Dickerson had crushed enough plastic water cups after gulps between innings and stepped over enough litter in the Louisville Bats' dugout when it finally hit home. How much plastic -- in the form of cups and bottled drinks -- were the Bats going through at Louisville Slugger Field?
"We've got about 35 guys in the locker room, and each player goes through three a day, whether it's water, fruit juice or Gatorade; that's almost 700 a week," Dickerson said. "You multiply that as the season goes on -- that's a ton of plastic. There were no receptacles available for recycling, so it was just getting thrown away like everything else."
Not anymore.
Dickerson dreams of one day being known among the Reds greats on the playing field. In the meantime, he'll settle for being known as a champion for going green.
"I want this to be my thing," he said. "I'm going to be the green guy, because that's what I truly care about, and that's what's been the biggest issue personally."
Dickerson had thought about the effects of global warming before, but it wasn't until he watched former Vice President Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" that he started to act. He started compiling articles on the subject, making lists of energy- and eco-friendly companies.
His list of ways to make the Bats more environmentally sound started with getting recycle bins placed in the Bats' clubhouse. He helps empty them when they get full. Next he wanted to do something about those plastic cups in the dugout.
Recyclable plastic -- many used for bottled water and sports drinks -- that ended up in landfills more than tripled from 1995 to 2005 from roughly 1.2 million pounds to nearly four million, according to the Container Recycling Institute.
Dickerson fired off e-mails seeking sponsorship when the makers of Sigg water bottles and their partners at Stopglobalwarming.org agreed to send the team a free supply. Rita Buscher, a spokeswoman for Sigg, said it was the first time to her knowledge the bottle maker had worked with a pro sports team.
Instead of taking that sip and discarding the plastic cups on the ground, players are now using one-liter aluminum water bottles that arrived last month. Bats players, manager Rick Sweet and his coaches have their own bottles with their names printed out on labels. The plastic cups, however, haven't become obsolete.
"They use fewer cups," said Bats clubhouse manager Jeremy Delewski, who is responsible for the home dugout. "But everybody's not involved. I'm sure that's not the first thing they think about when they come off the field."
Bats management did not prompt Dickerson into taking the lead and has not pressured any of the players into participating.
"That shows me he has a lot of character to take on a project like that, with really no apparent gain," said Bats general manager Dale Owens. "He didn't come to us and say, 'I'm going to do this, and I want some credit for it.' He organized it on his own, which to me is the mark of a leader."
As simple as it sounds, recycling is not the standard in most minor league clubhouses. Bats outfielder Drew T. Anderson played in the Milwaukee Brewers' organization five years before this season and had stops in Triple-A Nashville and Double-A Huntsville.
"I've never seen it at any level," Anderson said. "It's really cool to see someone stepping up and making a change because that's all it takes is that one person to step up and get things going, and then it catches on."
That's Dickerson's plan anyway.
With the Triple-A All-Star Game festivities slated for Louisville Slugger Field next Monday through Wednesday, Dickerson is hoping some of the visiting players might take action, too.
"The All-Star Game is supposed to be a go-green event," Dickerson said. "It's not necessarily the exposure from the game, but word of mouth. Maybe this viral episode of action can happen where people start to pay more attention to the issue and do more stuff around their own homes and be more aware of what's going on."
C.L. Brown can be reached at (502) 582-4044.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080709/SPORTS/807090927
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