Al's Morning Meeting

The Dallas Morning News reports:

Statewide safety rules are forcing community pools to shut down their high dives.

As cities and country clubs scale down to more prudent, 0.75-meter boards, pool rats expect a summer of lackluster belly-flops, pencil dives and cannonballs. ...

... Dallas eliminated all diving boards at city pools during the 1990s on the advice of its risk managers.

"There really hasn't been a great demand for diving boards since they were removed," said Dave Strueber, an assistant parks director in Dallas.

Diving board safety entered the national spotlight in 1998 when a Washington state man won a highly publicized verdict against the National Spa and Pool Institute. The man was paralyzed after diving into a backyard pool as a teenager.

A year later, Texas health officials issued new pool construction standards, including maximum diving board heights based on water depth and the slope of the pool's floor.

In late 2004, state health officials expanded the diving board rules to existing public pools. Some cities delayed enforcing the rules for a year while training staff members.

But this year, time was up. Plano found four pools that needed to lower their boards. Richardson took down two high dives and six 1-meter boards, replacing some with 0.75-meter boards.

Here are some related stories and commentary:

• "America's Gone off the Deep End," Marketplace (American Public Media)
• "Nanny State: Diving Boards Deep-Sixed by Fear of Litigation," The American Daily

A Newsday column makes the argument that we are robbing kids of fun in the name of safety:

Diving boards -- low and high, even the makeshift variety -- are, one by one, becoming a thing of the past, consigned to the growing pile of popular childhood accessories marked "Too dangerous for the kids."

"It's a safety thing," Richard Panzella, president of Aquaquality Pools & Spas in Westbury, [N.Y.], was explaining yesterday. "A lot of pool builders just aren't installing them like they used to. People don't want the liability."

Make no mistake about it, the United States has a lot at stake in the elections of our neighbor to the south. Mexicans voted for a new president on Sunday. Their choices would bring them politically closer to either a resurgent left-wing camp in Latin America or a pro-business, close alliance with the United States. Here is the latest election news.

How much does your state export to Mexico? Click here for a state-by-state list compiled by, among other organizations, the U.S. Department of Commerce.

On this page, you can select your state, then select "Mexico" from the "Trade Partner" list, and you can see what types of products your state sends to Mexico.

Here are some more resources you might find useful, from the BBC:

• Presidential candidate profiles
• Mexico election Q&A
  

There is a still small -- but growing -- movement among colleges and high schools against the use of aluminum baseball bats in competitive play.

The Associated Press says:

At issue is whether aluminum bats have made baseball unnecessarily dangerous. On one side are those who say baseballs fly off those bats much faster than they do wood bats and have led to severe injuries and, in a handful of cases, death. On the other side are those who say balls travel no faster off aluminum bats and that there is no evidence they put players at greater risk of injury.

Around the country, after decades of using aluminum bats, a small but growing number of college and high school leagues are switching to wood bats.

In Illinois, where [16-year-old Bill] Kalant was injured and a college pitcher had his skull fractured last year, the state high school association hopes to put wood bats in the hands of players in several conferences next year to study injuries, run production and costs. And in Chicago, the coordinator of the public school district's high school league says he's seen enough of aluminum bats and wants to switch to wood as soon as possible.

"These aluminum bats have been nothing but bad ... for baseball," said Eddie Curry, who oversees Chicago's public school league. "Some of these kids are afraid stiff of line drives coming back to them, afraid of playing baseball because of aluminum bats."

[Last] week, an American Legion team in Montana forfeited two games because its opponent would not play with wood bats. The Miles City Mavericks haven't faced aluminum bats in the nearly three years since pitcher Brandon Patch died when a line drive off an aluminum bat struck his head. 

The story continues:

There's no question metal bats have changed the game. Batting averages are higher and there are more home runs in games in which aluminum bats are used.

For example, this season in 31 conference games using wood bats, Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire hit 10 home runs -- compared with 52 homers in 29 non-conference games using aluminum bats.

"The bats, they're trampolines," said the team's coach, Jayson King. "The ball jumps off the bat."

It's the same story in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, a Division II college conference that switched to wood bats in 1998.

"In 1980 with aluminum bats, we had 104 home runs (and) this year the most home runs in our conference was 14," said Irish O'Reilly, the coach at Lewis University in suburban Chicago.

"If your team is using wood and their team is using aluminum, you can't beat them," he said. "It's like David versus Goliath."

A big reason is that aluminum bats have larger sweet spots, the area that produces hard-hit balls.

Curry said part of his push for wood bats is that he thinks they improve players' batting skills -- a sentiment shared by many coaches. Ralph Dalton, the coach at St. John the Baptist high school in West Islip, N.Y, noticed the difference when his league switched to wood bats this season.

"It's made them better hitters and better players," Dalton said.

• The Physics of Baseball
• Acoustics of Baseball Bats: "Crack" vs. "Ping"
  

In yet another indication that civilization is ending, the NBA will allow synthetic basketballs on the court next season.

As The New York Times explains:

The league last altered the design of the ball 35 years ago, when it moved from one made with four panels to one with eight.

Traditionally, a fresh leather ball is too slippery to be used in a game, so teams break them in during practice to improve their grip. By comparison, the new composite ball can be used immediately.

A little more than four years ago, the NCAA decided to allow synthetic balls in college hoops.

The NBA Web site includes glowing quotes from players.