Cold Weather

NATICK, Mass. - It's the middle of winter. Snow is falling. Wind is blowing. And Murray Hamlet is talking underwear. The secret to staying warm, confides Hamlet, is not in a $600 high-tech parka. It's in what you put on over your birthday suit. "Moisture management is the name of the game," preaches the U.S. Army's king of cold weather research from his lab outside Boston. "You've gotta have good underwear, a good first layer. Cotton gets wet, stays wet. Cotton kills." Dr. Murray Hamlet knows sub-zero.

The worst enemy of a finesse pitcher doesn't always swing a bat or aim a radar gun, although both of them can be nuisances. As John Stephens found out, cold weather and nagging injuries are even more detrimental. Stephens remained winless in seven starts with the Triple-A Ottawa Lynx going into Friday's game in Richmond, Va. He discovered warmer temperatures as his team traveled south. All the right-hander needed was a victory. At least he had a fair shot this time. Stephens arrived at spring training with the Orioles still recovering from postseason foot surgery, when doctors repaired a fracture by inserting a pin. The entire leg became sore, a condition that remains an issue.

When it's this cold, everybody loves the tow truck driver.So David W. Griffith felt very loved yesterday morning as he traveled around Baltimore County in arctic temperatures, giving jump starts, towing stalled cars and rescuing shivering motorists who had locked themselves out of their vehicles.He even helped out in the cause of romance -- which isn't generally part of his day's work.Halfway through the numbingly cold and busy morning, Griffith got a call for a car lock-out in Towson. He arrived to find panicked, 17-year-old Russell Lyons standing in the parking lot of the Carver Center for Arts and Technology.

You needn't worry about cold air damaging your lungs when you exercise in cold weather. The only reports of lung damage from cold air are in people who were unable to get out of the cold, such as American gunners who lay unconscious in the frozen turrets of high-flying World War II bombers or people who were injured in automobile accidents and lay unconscious for hours in the cold.During exercise, your muscles produce so much heat that air inhaled at 40 degrees below zero will be warmed more than 100 degrees before it reaches your lungs.

As a guy who spends a lot of the game in the bullpen, how do you prepare for the cold weather? I just bundle up and stretch a lot. I try to keep moving around, drink a lot of coffee. That's about it. When the phone rings, it's time to get up. Usually, you get loose pretty quick.

Orioles fans were whipped into a frenzy Monday at the notion that star Adam Jones might be moving to town. Adam Jones reaching for the same cinnamon rolls at Safeway? Adam Jones playing with his dog at Patterson Park? Adam Jones doing anything at all here all year long forever? Baltimore's collective reply was: YES PLEASE! It all started with this Tweet from Jones around lunchtime: "Do I move to Maryland? A question that has been lingering in my head. " Orioles fans leapt into action, favoriting the Tweet nearly 100 times.

WASHINGTON -- Winter will blow in colder than usual in the Eastern United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts.The news that the annual 90-day forecast calls for below-normal temperatures sent a shiver through the Northeast, where home heating fuel prices have risen steadily since the crisis in the Persian Gulf began."

Exercising in cold weather can cause chest pain in some people who have no problems when they exercise in warm weather. When cold wind blows in your face, your heart rate slows down. This decreases the blood flow to the heart and can cause pain.If the heart muscle is unable to get all the oxygen it needs, it starts to hurt.While freezing your face slows your heart, freezing your fingers makes your heart beat faster. If you have no history of arteriosclerosis and have chest pain when you exercise in cold weather, check with your doctor to rule out possible heart problems.

COLD-WEATHER BOATINGLast fall, one person among a group of sea duck hunters drowned after the anchor line fouled and the boat they were aboard in Eastern Bay capsized. This week, a kayaker who set out from Annapolis for St. Michaels in high winds last weekend was presumed to have drowned after his empty boat was found with his life jacket still aboard.Each year such cold-weather boating accidents kill more than 200 persons, according to statistics supplied by the Boat Owners Association of the United States.

I did my first "frost dance" of the season the other night. I stepped out the door, sprinted around the backyard, scooped up some potted plants and lugged them into the house. The wind was blowing, the temperature was dropping and my wife was worrying, not about me, but about the well being of the plants. This is what happens when an early-season cold front drops into Maryland from Canada, disrupting an idyllic fall, forcing us to make hard calls about which plants are worth protecting from the threat of frost.