Alan Schwarz, a contributor to ESPN The Magazine, is filing regular Pulsecards from spring training. Today he goes below the belt.

Perhaps we can't rightly call Isaac Newton the Mike Piazza of physics. But Mike Piazza could very well be the Isaac Newton of baseball -- specifically, of the scientific properties of various equipment.

Iron Mike doesn't deal with apples sklonking him on his head (that I know of), but baseballs between his legs are an omnipresent danger. With this in mind, he quite giddily details the virtues of his brand-spaking-new protective cup.

"This sucker's high-density," he boasts, pulling the gizmo out of his locker and demonstrating how it can actually bend. "You see, the idea is to alleviate the impact.

"When you get hit with a 95-mph foul tip, that ball hits the cup and the energy and acceleration has to go somewhere. The cup has to take the impact of the projectile and distribute it. This flexibility could definitely come in handy."

Sure enough, Piazza removes his old Bike cup and points out a line of distortion down the middle of the gray plastic. "See, this is where it just cracked," he says with a wince. Piazza knows these dangers all too well. Last year, the Expos' Wilton Guerrero slashed a foul tip square in the spheres and broke Piazza's shield clear in half. He's still single, but you never know, right?

Piazza turns the new cup around searching for a brand name. "This might be a Bike, too -- I have no idea," he says. "Whatever it is, I'll do an endorsement."

Already taken care of, Mike.