I was very disappointed to see the latest report regarding Major League Baseball and the common use of smokeless tobacco among professional ballplayers. Despite the known dangers, it seems, dipping is still an accepted practice.
While I’m not here to call out anyone for their addiction, I have to say it is disappointing at best (disheartening at worst) to see MLB players routinely going for a dip. And, honestly, I have never understood the connection between my beloved sport and this pastime.
Fifty years ago, let’s say, having ‘a chaw’ might be excused because we didn’t know the dangers of oral cancer. But, those risks have been well-documented over the years. Now, it’s just an unthinkable practice – yet true.
For years, former MLB great Joe Garagiola has waged a crusade against the use of smokeless tobacco, citing the damning statistics and anecdotal risks. Later, the topic bubbled to the forefront of sports news when Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn was diagnosed with oral cancer. He cited his long-term use of smokeless tobacco as a likely cause of his disease.
This latest report casts the use of smokeless tobacco in the MLB as a wide-ranging practice. Numerous references in the yahoo piece quote Boston Red Sox players who are dippers (as well as World Champions).
Fenway Park must be full of the stuff.
When I was a youth baseball coach, and a league official, we enforced a ban on of tobacco use on the field. Other leagues were not quite as stringent. But, at Farragut Baseball, Inc., if a parent were to ‘light up,’ everyone would turn to see who it was…that’s how uncommon tobacco use was at our park. In fact, there was one assistant coach who had a troubling habit of chomping on a stogie on the field. We had to tell him: “Uh. No.”
If other leagues across the country enforce a similar ban, and if high schools do the same, you wonder where the breakdown occurs. The use of chewing tobacco in college baseball game is against NCAA rules, so you figure it is up to the pros to draw the line.
Maybe that will happen as a part of MLB’s next collective bargaining agreement. In the meantime, however, it’s an issue. You just hope the knowledge that our professional baseball heroes condone dipping doesn’t make a statement to the young baseball players of the next generation that it is okay to do so.
The big leaguers, who are pros on the field, also need to be pros in terms of making a statement that ‘it’s not cool’ to dip. Maybe then, we can all celebrate a strike out of this nasty habit.
JG
Originally posted 3/10/2014
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