Q: Watching a Braves game recently, it occurred to me that when a player is hit by a pitch or fouls a ball off his ankle, I no longer see the trainer spray the injured spot with that aerosol they used to freeze it. Has the thinking changed as to how best to treat that type of injury? If not, why do they no longer do it?
—Dan Cowles, Cumming
A: Ethyl chloride is a topical anesthetic still used by MLB medical staffs, but Braves assistant trainer Jim Lovell told Q&A on the News that he hasn't seen "anybody use that on the field in 10 years." "It numbs you up for a few minutes, but by the time you got back to the dugout, the thing was throbbing again," Lovell said. "It was a very temporary fix, and we just got away from it." He said the decline in its on-field use resulted from a change in the container, which now makes it "unhandy" to carry, and from the amount of protection the players wear during their at-bats. "They wear a lot more armor than they did back in the day," Lovell said. If a player is injured, he'll now "get an ice bag or a compression wrap" in the dugout, he said.
Q: In the Sept. 14 edition of the AJC, there is an article about a House of Representatives vote on the Stolen Valor Act that would make it a crime to make false claims about receiving military medals. The vote was 410-3. As a veteran, I would be interested in which three members voted no on this and what state and party do they represent.
—Jerome Jernigan, Atlanta
A: Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Ron Paul (R-Texas) and George Miller (D-Calif.) voted against the Stolen Valor Act in the U.S. House of Representatives last week. The vote came three months after the Supreme Court struck down the 2006 Stolen Valor Act on the grounds that it violated First Amendment free speech rights.
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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