BASEBALL is still America’s pastime. Here on Guam, great-grandmothers understand baseball and they cheer loudly and WITH abandon when watching their grandchildren play. Islandwide, youth baseball leagues have hundreds of boys and girls running around getting healthy in the late afternoon sun.

Baseball brings families together. On village ball fields all around the island, families back up their pickups, pull down the tailgates, and watch a game together. Over the last few years, islandwide baseball leagues have been formed for 4-year-olds, 14-year-olds, 40-year-olds, and even formidable senior citizens who still know how to field a grounder or catch a pop fly.

From Yigo to Yoña, from Tamuning to Talafofo, the baseball fields are packed with teams vying for practice and game time. Much thanks and fiscal support needs to be given to the village mayors and their staff who often also serve as coaches for youth teams.

Over the past year, Guam has seen organized baseball become again a year-round phenomenon. Last summer, Little League held a fantastic international tournament featuring the top teams from the Asia-Pacific region and some of the best youth baseball players on the planet. Through the Fall months, new amateur baseball leagues formed to complement the now successful Master’s baseball league for players over 40 years of age. Then around Christmas time, the Simon Sanchez Sharks won the islandwide high school baseball championships by beating the George Washington Geckos, 3-1.

Now, the youth baseball games have started up again with the Central Little League holding their opening ceremonies this past weekend in Sinajaña. Down at the Paseo Stadium, the elite Budweiser Baseball League games are starting up again featuring some of the best baseball players in Micronesia.

Conscious about hydration, baseball players and their fans often indulge in new-fangled sports drinks that are often nothing more than expensive soft drinks. Soft drinks are so chock full of sugar that drinking them while performing sports is like swallowing a big box of sugar while trying to sing. All self-respecting sports nutrition experts condemn soft drinks.

The debate regarding sports drinks is more confused. Theoretically, sports drinks are formulated to replace the salts and nutrients that your body loses when you exercise. Originally created by sports nutritionists and carefully manufactured with only essential elements, many sports drinks are now filled with huge amounts of food coloring, sugar, and even caffeine such that they really are not healthy for young hearts and elderly athletes.

Perhaps the water that our young athletes should be drinking is growing in Guam’s coconut trees. Fat-free, cholesterol-free, low-calorie, super-hydrating, and naturally rich in electrolytes, coconut water has been dubbed “Nature’s sports drink.” Across the United States, the humble coconut has become glamorous – and fashionably fit folks are breaking out their wallets to pay for it.

Coconut water is rich in potassium and relatively low in sodium. This probably makes it healthier than regular sports drinks for people with high blood pressure and heart disease. Over the past five years, world-class athletes and health fanatics have been spending $3 a bottle for about 10 sips of liquid sunshine that we have for free right here on Guam. So pull down a fresh green coconut, pull up a seat, and come out and watch the kids play baseball.