Astroturf

Astroturf is a political term for phony grass-roots organizations supported with corporate money. In one of the more berserk developments in the history of modern politics, astroturf has become such a profitable (estimated $1 billion a year) and sophisticated business that public relations firms are now warring with one another about who provides astroturf and who provides "real" grass-roots organizing. "Real" in the context of the PR industry does not mean "real"; it means PR campaigns that are harder to spot as astroturf.

President Clinton recently said something that is even more confusing than when he makes policy wonk-talk. In a speech to workers at an auto plant in Louisiana, he noted that some new trucks were behind him., and said: "When I was a younger man and had a life, I owned an El Camino pickup in the '70s. It was a real sort of Southern deal. I had Astroturf in the back. You don't want to know why, but I did. " A couple of things in that statement puzzle me. First, I don't understand what he means by: "When I was a younger man and had a life . . . in the '70s.

Marlon Anderson became a victim of the worst playing surface in baseball. The Phillies second baseman was forced to sit out last night's game against the Montreal Expos because the decrepit 13-year-old AstroTurf at Olympic Stadium caused him to aggravate a hamstring injury that briefly sidelined Anderson earlier this season. "This stuff is killing me," Anderson said. "It's bad. I couldn't imagine having to play on this 81 times a year. " Anderson believes he will be able to return to the lineup for today's series finale against the Expos.

Television cameras love it because it is greener than any green God ever made and does not get ballplayers' uniforms dirty. Some sports fans consider it an affront to nature. Some sports doctors believe it is a health hazard. As for Marty Singer, he thinks a few yards of AstroTurf will look just dandy covering the front steps of his house in Fairview, N.J. Singer, a mechanic at the Oregon Lanes bowling center, dropped by John F. Kennedy Stadium yesterday to pick up some of the used AstroTurf the city is selling for 50 cents a square foot.

A bid to preserve green spaces in congested Delaware County went down in flames in May when voters learned it would raise their taxes. So there was a familiar, taxpayer-revolt ring the other day to a public appeal by a group calling itself "Team Tredyffrin, Taxpayers for Fiscally Responsible Recreation. " "Team Tredyffrin" ran a large ad in The Inquirer opposing plans to preserve for recreation a tract slated for a 28-home development. The ad called the Main Line township's eleventh-hour proposal to buy up the land "a huge fiscal bomb.

Joseph Torg - noted orthopedic surgeon and team doctor for the Philadelphia Eagles - is playing with shoes again. He has a cardboard box full of them sitting on the floor of the weight room at the University of Pennsylvania's Sports Medicine Center, which he directs. He borrowed this assortment of athletic footwear from the Eagles to test his theory about injuries that occur on AstroTurf. Put simply, he holds the carpet only partly responsible. He identified a possible accomplice years ago, in long science-journal articles that - for the layman's benefit - can be reduced to the length of an advertising slogan: It's the shoes.

Since NFL turf consultant George Toma proclaimed the Veterans Stadium field unsuitable for football last month, the grounds crew has been busy making upgrades for Sunday's game against Buffalo. Greg Grillone, the city's stadium manager, said yesterday that the seams in the west end zone had been made safer by shaving down some of the padding underneath the turf. In addition, he said the seams near cutouts around second and third base on the football field's west end had been have been made "less severe.

EAGLES CAREER: A fourth-round draft pick from Kentucky in 1974, LeMaster played all of his nine NFL seasons (1974-1982) with the Eagles during a span in which the team went from being one of the NFL's worst to its finest. LeMaster was a key part of the 1980 Super Bowl squad in addition to locking up Pro Bowl honors in 1981. A 6-1, 195-pound linebacker, he was always around the ball, and finished his career with seven fumble recoveries, 10 interceptions and two touchdowns. WHERE HE IS NOW: Playing on the Veterans Stadium turf actually inspired LeMaster to find his calling after football.

With the football season over here, Ramon Sotello peeled up artificial grass yesterday in preparation for Veterans Stadium's new AstroTurf - its fifth mat since the stadium opened in 1971.

There used to be a time - back when the local heroes were named John Callison and John Wesley Covington - when you could go to a baseball game in Philadelphia and look out upon a magnificent emerald-green carpet. Soft. Shimmering. Resplendent beneath the lights. Grass, they called it, the old-timers tell us. Grass so beautiful it almost made you want to run out and buy a lawn mower. Grass. Those were the days. Of course, those were also the days when you could come out of the ballpark and find your car missing.

EAGLES CAREER: A fourth-round draft pick from Kentucky in 1974, LeMaster played all of his nine NFL seasons (1974-1982) with the Eagles during a span in which the team went from being one of the NFL's worst to its finest. LeMaster was a key part of the 1980 Super Bowl squad in addition to locking up Pro Bowl honors in 1981. A 6-1, 195-pound linebacker, he was always around the ball, and finished his career with seven fumble recoveries, 10 interceptions and two touchdowns. WHERE HE IS NOW: Playing on the Veterans Stadium turf actually inspired LeMaster to find his calling after football.

A report released yesterday by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says the normally small amounts of lead found in artificial turf fields are not a safety threat for children. The commission began studying the issue at the request of the New Jersey Department of Health in April after lead was found in decaying AstroTurf fields in Newark and Hoboken at levels that exceeded acceptable amounts. Lead exposure can cause brain and neurological problems in young children.

The College of New Jersey had a problem. Lead dust had been discovered between the blades of the artificial grass on Lions Field, where football and lacrosse teams had played for 10 years - and where graduation ceremonies were just weeks away. The dust could be hazardous if inhaled or ingested, the state Department of Health and Senior Services said. College officials were shocked. Quickly, they padlocked the arena. Now, two weeks after the state's health alert went out nationally, athletic and recreation directors at colleges, high schools and parks across the country are grappling with what to do about their own synthetic playing surfaces.

Mike Schmidt played coy recently when asked where he would hit in the current Phillies lineup. Schmidt, 58, said he didn't know, but he was pretty sure he could bat fourth for the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox. He probably could bat fourth for the Phillies, too. Can you imagine Schmidt hitting between Chase Utley and Ryan Howard? Manager Charlie Manuel, a man who loves balance in his lineup, would love that. Schmidt, the Hall of Fame third baseman and member of the 500-home-run club, has been in Clearwater for a couple of weeks as an instructor.

10 Bill Bergey. It was, even in 1974, costly. For one spectacular linebacker, Bill Bergey, the Eagles gave the Cincinnati Bengals two first-round draft picks and a second-rounder. Imagine. Two first-round picks. So just before the draft, general manager Jim Murray sent Bergey into the Eagles' war room. "I walk in and go, 'Hi, everybody, here's your No. 1 and No. 2 picks,' " Bergey said recently. "And not one person thought it was funny. " But no one laughed at Bergey's performances for the Eagles.

Veterans need our help with stress disorder There are servicemen and women returning from the Iraq war with memories that will haunt them. These Americans need help, more help than we gave to Vietnam veterans, some of whom are suffering recurrences of post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of exposure to news of the Iraq war. I lost someone to PTSD. No, he wasn't some crazy lost soul. He was a business school graduate, an international finance expert, and eventually a successful minister.

The Phillies' brand-new, old-time ballpark made its unofficial debut yesterday to vigorous applause and - in the long-standing tradition of Philadelphia sports fans - sonorous boos. The boos were for Mayor Street, whose speech before the first pitch was nearly drowned out by a roar of disapproval. The mayor was followed by Phillies slugger Jim Thome, who received an equally deafening barrage of cheers and a few chants of "Run for Mayor!" But it was Citizens Bank Park itself, which hosted the Phillies game yesterday against the Cleveland Indians, that earned the biggest hurrahs.

When they covered it up 20 years ago, they thought they were sealing its fate for a century. The time capsule - a red-and-white cylinder stuffed with Phillies memorabilia such as a Phillie Phanatic doll, a Mike Schmidt uniform, and a bat signed by Pete Rose - was planted near Connie Mack's statue outside Veterans Stadium in 1983, the 100th anniversary of Phillies baseball. They'd uncover it, Phillies officials said, in celebration of the team's 200th anniversary. Instead, it's coming up 80 years early.

If you can look beyond the hoopla, California's recall madness makes the strongest case yet for revisiting the Supreme Court's constitutional equation of money with "speech" - the logic that's warped our campaign finance rules since the famous 1976 case of Buckley v. Valeo. Start with the obvious question: Why should a wealthy mischief-maker like Republican congressman Darrell Issa have been allowed to spend the million or so on paid signature-gatherers needed to put a recall on the ballot and plunge the state into chaos?

The play began promisingly. Chicago Bears wide receiver Wendell Davis knew he was wide open on a post pattern, but the ball was thrown just a little short. He had to slow up. He planted his feet to stop and go up for the ball. His cleats stayed in the artificial turf. Nine years later, Davis still remembers: He heard snaps. Not one, but two. The ball sailed past. The next thing Davis knew, a trainer was pulling the legs of his pants up around his thighs. "I basically saw that I had no kneecaps," Davis said.