When and how did you found the Institute?
According to the base studies we did at U of Michigan, breakaway bases would lead to the prevention of 1.7 injuries and save $2 billion dollars in health care costs a year nationally.

I could see patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and there's still no way I will help 1.7 million people a year. I think God or a higher power was telling me, "Listen, focus on prevention." I didn't get it the first time through. It actually took a really bad event with my daughter getting ill for the point to be drilled home. That's why right after that happened, within a week, I was working on developing the Institute.

I had finished my residency and I had just joined an orthopedic group. I told them I wanted to keep doing research, and they said fine. I went back and told them I wanted to establish this Institute, and I wanted the nine members of our group on the board of directors, and I wanted to recruit some big name folks that have been active in sports medicine and prevention. And they said "Ok," and anted up 40 grand.

Then, I developed an advisory board of former professional and Olympic athletes and folks within the business community, an ongoing process. Now, we have about 35 people on our advisory board. They help us cut down our research time by a huge amount. When we first tried the base thing, we tried to outlaw sliding. They thought I was a Communist. Then we tried courses to teach them how to slide. Well, they didn't show up. We found that this advisory board really helped us a lot. The advisory board does media relations as well, so if Dave Janda says something, big deal. But if Walter Payton corroborates, that's a big deal.

We run the Institute really on a shoestring. I don't get paid. I have a full time assistant that helps with the research, administrative issues and educational events. We hire our research personnel by the hour. St. Joseph's-Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor donated equipment and laboratory space. They have been very, very supportive of our efforts. So, we can still do good work even with what little money we have coming in.

When I founded the Institute, I thought the biggest problem was going to be to find the time. I donate 20 hours a week, every week, minimum, to the Institute. I've been able to pull that off. The part that I thought was going to be easy has been a nightmare, and that's the funding.

Are there forces actively working against you?
I think so. It has been very difficult to get money. Part of that is self-imposed. I made a rule at the Institute that we would not take any money from the sporting good manufacturers. If we did that, there would be a perceived conflict of interest, let alone a true conflict of interest. So, we have not taken any money form the sporting goods industries. There is no peer reviewed, independent scientific information that corroborates all their claims. The sporting goods manufacturers hate us, because they can't buy us off.

Why was there such resistance to manufacturing safer bases?

For example, in hockey, the pros were very hesitant about helmets, face shields, face guards. Canadians have a little different philosophy about prevention than we do. The powers that be in hockey said, "We should start this off with the kids." As they aged, the helmets and the face shields went up throughout all the levels, and eventually made its way to the pros.

In the United States, the financial powers suppress information from bubbling up. When we were doing the base studies in minor league baseball, we had great success the first year. Then the head of minor league baseball told us we couldn't go ahead with the second year of the study because they were getting pressure from major league baseball, who was getting heat from manufacturers that were paying big endorsement money to the pros. When some of our advisory board members got on the phone and threatened to make it public, they backed off and we were allowed to do the second year of our study.
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