Respiratory illness sweeps through locker room

After Wednesday's 5-2 victory over Rome, the Charleston RiverDogs lined up for the traditional line of shaking hands and high-fives among the team. At the end of the line waiting for the first players to reach him, manager Torre Tyson quietly added to the ritual — slipping on a rubber glove so he wouldn't have to make skin-to-skin contact with anyone.

Tyson's not germophobic by nature, but he's taking no chances lately. In the past two weeks, an upper respiratory infection has spread through the team. So far 11 players and pitching coach Carlos Reyes have all missed games due to the illness. Tyson's determined he'd rather be safer than sorry.

"My wife has already warned me not to bring that stuff home and leave her on a road trip with two sick kids," he said.

Players are missing two or three games at a time trying to fight off the flu-like symptoms. Third baseman Mitch Hilligoss was one of the first to come down with it during the last home stand. Then, the RiverDogs loaded up for a four-hour bus trip to Asheville and it got worse.

"I was leaving guys at the hotel on that trip. It was depleting our bench," Tyson said, who on Tuesday had to double as the pitching coach and fill out a lineup card without regular outfielder Josue Calzado and Brian Baisley, who's hit .321 since joining the team two weeks into the season.

Fans will know if it's getting worse if they see Tyson in a contamination suit.

Iron men

The only players to appear in every RiverDogs game so far have been first baseman Chris Malec and outfielder Seth Fortenberry.

Malec, who mostly played third base for Charleston in 2006, is hitting .269 with 14 runs batted in and three homers.

Fortenberry leads the team with 23 runs batted in and five homers. He's hitting .253, but expectations are that his average will rise closer to the .300 mark by the end of the season. That he has managed to stay away from illness has been remarkable in that he's Hilligoss' roommate.