Gatorade

An 11-year-old Severn School pupil learned a hard lesson yesterday about what happens when one's reach exceeds his grasp: His right arm got caught in a soda machine.Garrett Nicholson of Gambrills was stuck for 90 minutes before Anne Arundel County EMS/Fire/Rescue workers could free him from the delivery chute of the machine, which had to be cut apart.He got a ride in a state police helicopter to Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore and was given three free bottles of the Gatorade he had been after when the mishap occurred about 3 p.m."

CHICAGO -- Quaker Oats Co. fired three top executives yesterday, including the head of its profitable Gatorade division, as part of a reorganization by new Chairman Robert Morrison to scale back the size of the company.The food and beverage company also said it will buy back as much as $1 billion in stock, about 17.6 million shares at Wednesday's closing price of $56.8125. That amounts to about 13 percent of the company's 138.1 million shares outstanding.Morrison, who joined Quaker in October, said he wants to make Quaker more profitable by paring back, especially in international markets.

Sept. 1Ravens 19, Raiders 14Defense. Special teams. Vinny left, Vinny right, Vinny up the middle. Running games are overrated.Record: 1-0Sept. 8 at Pittsburgh 1 p.m.Steelers, embarrassed by Jaguars, are tough at home, and, of course, there's that "hard-drinking, menacing crowd" to deal with.Sept. 15 at Houston 1 p.m.Houston, we have a problem: The quarterback stinks. Will Chris Chandler be the starter, or will Air McNair take off?Sept. 29 New Orleans 1 p.m.Ravens' secondary can expect a test from Chris, er, Jim Everett (just kidding, big fella)

Gibbons' All-Metro guard Steve Wojciechowski, who averaged 19.1 points, 6.5 assists, 4.5 steals and 4.0 rebounds for the Catholic League regular-season and tournament champs, has been chosen Maryland's Player of the Year by Gatorade.Wojciechowski is now eligible for Gatorade's national Player of the Year award.Wojciechowski, who has signed with Duke, also was chosen recently among the nation's 12 best as a McDonald's All-American and will play in the April 7 Capital Classic game at the University of Maryland.

The folks at Gatorade think they can knock Baltimore's eyes wide open in the morning.Baltimore is one of four test markets, all in the Northeast, for SunBolt, a new drink aimed at taking morning market share away from coffee and orange juice. It marks a departure from the sports-related market for Gatorade, as it moves to keep up in the highly segmented, hotly competitive beverage business."We thought the Northeast was the best first for this," Gatorade spokeswoman Patti Jo Sinopoli said, adding that the product was announced in June but is only now being marketed.

"You've probably never lived for a week on pork rinds and Coors Light, but you can do it!" That's the dietary advice I got from a seasoned multi-day cycling veteran just before I took off for last week's Cycle Across Maryland (CAM) Tour.Billed as "Shore to Shore in '94," it began in Leonardtown on the southern end of Maryland's western shore, went to Largo, Millersville, Centreville, Salisbury, Crisfield at the southern tip of the Eastern Shore, then finished in Berlin, just a few miles from Ocean City.

He had a stress fracture of the tibia that is healing. Two weeks ago, he had to go to the hospital after suffering a rib injury in a car accident.But Troy Jacobson of Towson isn't going to allow the injuries to stop him from competing in his third Gatorade Ironman Triathlon, a grueling combination of 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bicycle race and 26.2-mile marathon."

A FRIEND recently returned from a run grumbling about drinks. He said that water doesn't rejuvenate, Gatorade doesn't satisfy, PowerAde tastes like colored water and All-Sport might as well be called "All-Soda." He then set off in search of 10K, a beverage meant to heal him from the 10K he'd just completed.What's going on here? Not too long ago, the choices were obvious. If you got your kicks playing basketball for nine hours or biking up the Rockies, the beverage industry had a drink just for you. Gatorade, introduced in the early 1970s by the Quaker Oats company, was the first nationally recognized "sports beverage."

PHILADELPHIA -- As several of the Miami Dolphins carried coach Don Shula off the field, his mind drifted through memories of Unitas, Matte, Marino, the unbeaten team of 1972, and of course, a lot of other victories.But the one yesterday at Veterans Stadium was one of the sweetest.The Dolphins put on a display typical of a Shula team, pulling off a gritty comeback, playing with no-name quarterbacks, making great on-the-field decisions, winning.The Miami Dolphins defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 19-14, before 64,213, as Shula became pro football's winningest coach.

Most major-leaguers don't need to lose 12 pounds -- certainly not in one day.But when it's 100 degrees outside and it's your turn to pitch, chances are that is what will happen. And chances are that kind of diet isn't endorsed by Weight Watchers.For the Orioles and every other major-league team, careful monitoring and hydration are the key words when the weather turns ugly, draining even the fittest athletes."The thing you have to guard against is dehydration," said manager Johnny Oates. "The weight they are losing is pure liquid and the thing you try to do is put as much of that liquid back in the body as you can."

OK, Baltimore, let's see what success does to you and your football team when it plays the Cleveland Browns today. I say this because, as you may know, the Ravens are suddenly getting a ton of national respect. ESPN.com's "panel of experts" lists them at No. 1 in the weekly power rankings. They're also No. 1 in SI.com's power rankings. And everyone from current NFL coaches to ex-jocks in the TV booth to print and Web pundits is weighing in on what a great team the Ravens are. I know, I know . . . I'm just as sick about this as you are. Because let's face it: This is not a town that does respect well.

St. Paul's Bailey Webster wanted to go to a college with a big-time sports program. As the nation's No. 1 volleyball recruit, she had her pick of most of them. Yesterday, the 6-foot-3 outside hitter said she had chosen Texas. "When I went there, I felt like I fit in," Webster, 17, said. "I loved the girls and I loved the teams. I wanted to go to a big school that was good in sports. They're top five in volleyball, No. 1 in football and top five in basketball, so you can't do much better than that.

CHICAGO -- For Todd Magazine, it's as if the Super Bowl, the World Series and the Olympics are rolled into one this winter. Magazine is head of Gatorade, and the sports-drink titan is in the thick of launching G2, its biggest new beverage in six years. A caffeinated version of Gatorade's Propel enhanced water also just hit the market, and in March the company plans to bring the ballyhooed Gatorade Tiger to store shelves. Golfing star Tiger Woods helped choose three new Gatorade flavors and will lend his name to the product, which was unveiled in October.

J. ROBERT CADE, 80 Creator of Gatorade Dr. J. Robert Cade, who created the sports drink Gatorade and launched an industry that the beverage continues to dominate, died yesterday in Jacksonville, Fla., of kidney failure. His death was announced by the University of Florida, where he and other researchers created Gatorade in 1965 to help the school's football players replace carbohydrates and electrolytes. Now sold in 80 countries in dozens of flavors, Gatorade was born thanks to a question from then-Gators Coach Dwayne Douglas about why players don't urinate after games, Dr. Cade said in a 2005 interview with the Associated Press.

ISSUE: -- It's graduation time for county high school seniors. What's your best advice? Turn life's lemons into lemonade When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade. Should you encounter an alligator, make Gatorade. Thomas Ponton Columbia Be a problem solver; seek help, advice The advice: Always try your best to solve your problems - but if you can't, don't let your ego, pride or economic situation stop you from asking for help or advice. Donald B. Treadwells Severn

Rowers tend to think of themselves as the scholars and intellectuals of the sports world. They trace their lineage to ancient Greece and Renaissance Venice. Modern competitive rowing began in 1829 with the races between Oxford and Cambridge universities. The first intercollegiate athletic competition of any kind in America was the Yale and Harvard race of 1852. "Rowers are adventurous, disciplined, competitive, yet sophisticated individuals who love the outdoors," say the sponsors of the Thomas Eakins Head of the Schuylkill Regatta in Philadelphia, a center of American rowing.

Calvert Hall senior Ben Pardew, The Sun's All-Metro Player of the Year in boys soccer in the fall, has signed a national letter of intent to play at Towson University. A 5-foot-9, 165-pound forward, Pardew had 15 goals and one assist for the top-ranked Cardinals, who went 20-0-2 and won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship. Pardew, the Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year and a candidate for the national Player of the Year award, was at his best in his team's biggest games.

GATORADE is now making water. I know this because I saw a Gatorade commercial that asks the intriguing question: "What if Gatorade made water?" (Intriguing answer: Gatorade will charge you a dollar for a small bottle of it.) The commercial features the usual cast of hyperactive Gatorade people, who have to constantly ingest massive quantities of fluids, or they shrivel up like dead toads on hot asphalt. Gatorade people dehydrate rapidly because they are fanatically dedicated to exercise, and as a result, perspiration-wise, they are human fire hydrants.

Hundreds of gallons of sports drinks will be poured down the throats of 7,000 runners pounding the streets of the city in the Baltimore Marathon this Saturday. Will those drinks do as promised, help make those 26 miles, 385 yards go by easily and painlessly? Well, yes and no. To understand the ambiguity, go back to the beginnings of what is now a $2.6 billion-a-year business. In the mid-1960s, Dr. Robert Cade, a researcher at the University of Florida, looked into an interesting question: Why don't football players have to relieve themselves during games?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - When Tennessee Titans receiver Chris Sanders sees Derrick Mason in the huddle with his mouth wide-open, he gives him the following piece of advice. "I tell him go get a cup of Gatorade," Sanders said. "Then he will go get that cup of Gatorade and be back to D-mase." It seems Gatorade and taking a couple of offensive plays off rejuvenates Mason. But who could blame Mason if he gets a little winded during games? As ridiculous a notion that someone other than Pro Bowl running back Eddie George could be the team's most valuable player, Mason's versatility gives him a case this season.