Category Archives: Chew in baseball

Chew in baseball, Chewing tobacco, Curt Schilling, Tony Gwynn

Boston Herald columnist calls for banning chewing tobacco in baseball

August 24, 2014 Pepe Lepew

Boston Herald columnist Michael Silverman wrote a powerful column this week that it’s time for Major League Baseball to ban chewing tobacco.

This is hitting home in Boston right now because former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who helped the Sox win two World Series, recently revealed that he is battling a serious form of oral cancer — cancer he blames on his 30-year chewing habit. Schilling’s cancer and Tony Gwynn’s (another chewer) death this summer from salivary gland cancer have put chewing tobacco in baseball front and centre.

Schilling actually did quit chew for a while, but after a year-and-a-half the power of nicotine won and he started dipping again. From Silverman’s column:

“None of it [lectures] was enough to ever make me quit,’’ Schilling said. “The pain that I was in going through this treatment, the second or third day, it was the only thing in my life that I wish I could go back and never have dipped.”

Actually, MLB does want to ban chewing tobacco. Cigarettes are banned in the clubhouse and dugouts. Chew is banned (on the field, mind you) in minor league baseball and in college, but MLB can’t ban it because the Player’s Association won’t allow it.

Silverman writes:

If only the players and Major League Baseball could see that they are dead wrong when it comes to how they rationalize and allow the use of smokeless tobacco rather than eliminating the addictive and cancer-causing substance.

Anyone who heard the higher timbre in the 47-year-old voice of Curt Schilling on WEEI radio and on NESN for the Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon as he spoke for the first time about his battle with mouth cancer yesterday, or anyone still grieving the loss of 54-year-old Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn in June to a similar cancer, received a chilling reminder that, incredibly, tobacco still has a place in baseball.

Silverman further writes:

Schilling didn’t need an ashtray at Fenway when he played since smoking tobacco had long been banned.

But chewing tobacco?

Oh no, you must understand: That’s totally different. Smoking tobacco’s bad. Chewing the stuff? Well, players in Schilling’s era and players in today’s game can chew all they want. Just don’t let anyone see the telltale circular bulge of a can of snuff in your back pocket, try not to pause in the middle of an interview to spit out the juice and by all means, don’t ask a clubbie to head down to the local convenience store to stock up.

No, MLB forbids and frowns on all of that.

But otherwise, go right ahead: Kill yourself if you want to.

That’s your right.

And finally, Silverman concludes:

Baseball survived when smoking was banned from the clubhouse.

Banning smokeless tobacco won’t kill it, either.

Chew in baseball, Chewing tobacco, Curt Schilling, Tony Gwynn

Curt Schilling reveals he has oral cancer, blames chewing tobacco

August 21, 2014 Pepe Lepew 3 Comments

Hey, back for an update after a long break.

Another baseball, chewing tobacco bombshell: Former Red Sox, Diamondback and Phillies pitcher Curt Schilling revealed yesterday that he is battling oral cancer, and he directly blames his years of chewing tobacco while playing baseball.

“I do believe, without a doubt, unquestionably that chewing was what gave me cancer,” he said [on NESN]. “I’m not going to sit up here from the pedestal and preach about chewing.”

Schilling, of the legendary bloody sock in the ALCS, is the second high-profile baseball player who has been in the news this summer over chewing tobacco and cancer. Several weeks ago, Tony Gwynn died of salivary gland cancer several weeks ago after years of chewing tobacco.

The Schilling case is just the latest reason to ban chewing tobacco in baseball. Currently, minor league players are not allowed to chew tobacco on the field, while in MLB, players are not allowed to smoke cigarettes. However, the players’ union insists on protecting players’ right to continue chewing tobacco on the field. I’ve posted about this repeatedly over the past year, for some mystifying reason, chewing tobacco is deeply, deeply ingrained in the culture of baseball. Why? No one seems to know. No one seems to have any answers for that. Baseball players simply chew. A lot. And a lot of baseball players have gotten oral or mouth cancer — Babe Ruth died of oral cancer and Roger Maris died of some kind of head/neck/oral cancer.

Schilling described the seven weeks of painful radiation therapy he underwent. The therapy caused him to lose 75 pounds because he has trouble eating solid food. He also has trouble generating saliva due to the treatment.

“Recovery is a challenge,” Schilling said. “There are so many things that are damaged during the process. I don’t have any salivary glands, I can’t taste anything and I can’t smell anything right now. And there’s no guarantee they’ll come back.”

Red Sox manager John Farrell talked about Schilling and the culture of chewing tobacco in baseball.

“I don’t want to call it a tradition, because it’s not,” Farrell said Wednesday afternoon. “But it’s a norm in baseball culture.”

“MLB has taken steps to dissuade players from using it through educational programs that are administered to every team,” Farrell said. “It’s even got to the point [in the minor leagues] now where players can be fined if smokeless tobacco is in view of the general public. There have been some of those warnings and penalties levied on some of our players.

“I think we all recognize that it’s addictive and causes cancer. That’s proven. [But] at this time, it’s upon the player to make the conscious decision for himself to use it or not. All we can do is continue educate guys what the ramifications are. … On the heels of the unfortunate passing of Tony Gwynn and what Curt is going through, you would think this would be a current beacon for guys to take note that there’s a price to be paid, if you’re one of the unfortunate ones stricken by cancer.”

Schilling apparently was diagnosed with a “lesion” on his lip 10 or 15 years ago and had the lesion removed. He quit chew for a year-and-a-half, but then got back in the habit. So, even after wising up, even after a lesion was found, the power of nicotine won out.

baseball, Chew in baseball, Chewing tobacco, Kevin Millar, Tony Gwynn, Uncategorized

Kevin Millar on chewing tobacco: “Enough is enough”

July 9, 2014 Pepe Lepew

Last week, Kevin Millar, former “Cowboy Up” Red Sox and one of the more entertaining voices on the MLB Network, appeared on Dan Patrick’s radio show on ESPN Radio, and Dan Patrick specifically asked him a number of questions about chewing tobacco in light of Tony Gwynn’s recent death from cancer.

To recap, Tony Gwynn died of salivary gland cancer, which appeared in the same cheek as where he always chewed. Baseball is being pressured to ban chewing tobacco on the field. The MLB actually wants to do it, but the players’ union is resisting. Chewing tobacco is already banned on the field at the minor league level and by the NCAA. For some bizarre reason, chew is deeply ingrained in the culture of baseball. A culture that is proving difficult to break.

Millar gave a really honest, articulate and poignant interview, not mincing words about how stupid chewing tobacco is and how he badly wants to quit. Here are a few snippets from the interview.

In case fascist YouTube pulls the video:

Dan Patrick interview

Miller on how he always chewed when he went out on the baseball field, and now still has the habit of chewing when he goes out to golf.

“This whole thing (with Tony Gwynn) has really opened my eyes. I know it’s a bad habit. I always did it on the field and now on the golf couse … I’m wired that way. Tuesday, I didn’t grab my can on my way to the golf course because of the whole Tony Gwynn situation. I want to quit. There’s got to be a time when you say ‘enough is enough.'”

Millar said he didn’t start chewing until 1996 when he was given his first can of Copenhagen by former big league pitcher Pascual Perez.

“For some reason … only on the baseball field. I never was a guy who needed it in hotel rooms or on the bus. I don’t know if I thought it was a cool thing to do because you’re a ballplayer or what.”

Patrick brought up the point that some people have claimed that chewing tobacco is a Performance Enhancement Drug (apparently because you get a charge of energy from the nicotine?). Patrick pointed out that perhaps baseball could ban chew on these grounds. Millar disagreed.

” It’s an addiction. It’s a choice. It’s a bad choice. I don’t that it’s a performance enhance. It’s just a bad choice,” he said.

Patrick made his own poignant comment of why did it take Tony Gwynn’s death to get so many ballplayers thinking about chew?

“I hate the fact that it took the death of a hall of famer to realize what it can do to you,” Patrick said. “Why did it take that?”

“We know it’s stupid every time you stick your finger in there and grab a pinch,” Millar responded. He suggested one reason more players don’t think about it is because they think that what happened to Gwynn could never happen to them.

Millar also talked his father, who required a quadruple bypass after just 12 years of smoking. He acknowledged that not everyone who smokes who chews get cancer because there is a genetic component to cancer, but boy, I loved his next statement, because he hits it dead-on. The fact is, not every chewer dies of oral cancer and not every smoker dies of lung cancer, but boy, you sure increase your risk:

“You think ‘it’s not going to happen to me, right. It’s not going to happen to me’ I used to watch Johnny Pesky at 83 years old with a full chew in …. he passed away at 92, 94, he did it for 60 years. At the end of the day, you’re playing Russian roulette,” he said.

“But when it hits home, it makes you think. I have four little kids. I want to be around,” Millar concluded.

Good luck to Kevin Millar in quitting chew.

Chew in baseball, Chewing tobacco, Stephen Strasburg, Tony Gwynn

Stephen Strasburg plans to quit chew due to Tony Gwynn’s death

June 26, 2014 Pepe Lepew

A second, more high-profile player has announced he is quitting chew because of the death from cancer of Tony Gwynn. Stephen Strasburg, star pitcher for the Washington Nationals announced this week he is also quitting chew.

Tony Gwynn, a lifelong chewer, died last week of salivary gland cancer, which prompted the call from numerous people for MLB to ban chewing tobacco on the field. Chew on the field is banned in college and the minor leagues, but the Players’ Association won’t allow MLB to ban it at the highest level. For some mystifying reason that I don’t understand, chew seems to be a big part of baseball culture.

Gwynn, who was only 54 when he died, blamed his chewing on his cancer (the cancer showed up on the same side of the mouth as where he always chewed). Strasburg (like Addison Reed, who also announced this week he will quit chew) played for Tony Gwynn when he was a star at San Diego State University.

According to MLB:

“I think it’s a disgusting habit, looking back on it,” the Nationals right-hander said on Monday. “I was pretty naive when I started. Just doing it here and there, I didn’t think it was going to be such an addiction. … Bottom line is, I want to be around for my family. This is something that can affect people the rest of your life. [Chewing tobacco is] so prevalent in this game. It’s something we all kind of grew up doing.”

Congrats to Stephen and I wish him luck in quitting.

baseball, Chew in baseball, Chewing tobacco

Keith Olbermann’s absolutely EPIC rant against chewing tobacco in baseball — “Get it off the field, for Tony Gwynn”

June 23, 2014 Pepe Lepew 1 Comment

I was pleasantly surprised to watch this 5-minute, emotional rant from Keith Olbermann on his ESPN show calling for an end to chewing tobacco on the field of baseball. I was surprised that this was something Olbermann felt so strongly about (and it really made me miss him from his MSNBC days — this is what Keith should be doing, not sports highlights).

Olbermann, who broke down crying talking about Tony Gwynn earlier in the week, takes on the MLB Players’ Association for refusing to budge on chewing tobacco (“they are completely, utterly, indefensibly wrong,” Olbermann said.) BTW, MLB actually wants to ban it. He also takes on denialists who claim that Gwynn’s cancer had nothing to do with his chewing. (I saw one of these denialists ranting online last week myself, quoting some sketchy medical group that turns out is consistently pro-industry and pro-corporation.)

And this earlier piece by Olbermann, remembering Tony Gwynn. Hopefully, YouTube doesn’t take these videos down, but they might:

Anyway, it’s a pretty devastating coincidence that the salivary gland cancer formed in the cheek where Gwynn always put in his chew for 30 years). Like Olbermann points out, doctors 50 years ago insisted there was no link between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer.

OK, this is a struggle to transcribe this, but here is the best part of his rant, taking on the denialists:

“So one of the holier-than-thou medical groups can’t whine that we’re using scare tactics, let’s just assume that Tony Gwynn did not die by using chewing tobacco on the right side of his mouth and that the cancer of the salivary glands … on the right side of his mouth … was just a coincidence, and the cancer was caused by one of the ‘recognized’ risk factors like exposure to extreme radiation or working in asbestos mining, because we all remember those seasons Tony Gwynn skipped baseball to go work mining asbestos … with the right side of his mouth.”

Applause, Keith.

Olbermann details the sordid history of tobacco advertising and sports, including baseball, and the more recent history of chewing tobacco advertising and sports. He also talks about how 40 years ago, baseball banned cigarette smoking on the field, but continues to lag on chew.

Part of the reason Olbermann feels so strongly about chew is years ago, he used to smoke pipes and cigars, believing that he it was safer than smoking cigarettes — that was until doctors found a growth in the roof of his mouth that had to be removed by a laser.

“I get it, I’ve been ‘it,’ ” Olbermann said, in response to people struggling to quit tobacco.

Olbermann concludes:

“Get it off the field. Cheat if you must in the clubhouses. Get it off the field. Get it off the field now. Get it off the field tomorrow. Get it off the field for Tony Gwynn.”

baseball, Chew in baseball, Chewing tobacco, Ian Desmond

Washington Nationals’ Ian Desmond quitting tobacco

April 12, 2014 Pepe Lepew

Nice story from the Washington Post about the Nationals’ All-Star shortstop Ian Desmond. I think I’ve mentioned before that the Washington Post is one of the most anti-tobacco newspapers I’ve seen out there.

As we all know, baseball has a huge chew problem, which begins way back in high school. The minor leagues have banned players using chew during games, but MLB, while it has been discussed from time to time, has never taken action to stop players from chewing tobacco during games. For some reason, chew is deeply ingrained in the culture of baseball.

Anyway, Ian Desmond decided to quit chewing this past offseason. In this story, he admits that it has been difficult to quit. Keep in mind, chew has nicotine just like cigarettes and is just as physically addicting as cigarettes. A few excerpts from the Washington Post story:

He sent his mother, Pattie Paradise, a text message from inside the clubhouse. “I’m having a hard time,” he wrote. Having pleaded with him to stop for years, Paradise sent back, “You can do it.”

After Soriano fooled Jason Heyward with a nervy, 3-2 slider to strand two runners, Desmond retreated to the clubhouse. By the time Desmond stood in front of reporters, he had made it through the day without a dip.

“That was a bigger victory than beating the Braves,” Desmond said. “I’ve done it for a long time. I’m really trying hard to quit.”

Desmond could celebrate a win and an achievement. He stopped dipping before December and made it through spring training for the first time since he became a professional 10 years ago at 18. Desmond admitted he broke down Saturday night and packed his lip. But he viewed it as a small hurdle.

“That was back on the wagon, off the wagon,” Desmond said. “It’s not easy. I feel for people who have to deal with this stuff on a larger scale. I’m not proud that it’s got that control over me. But I’m fighting it.

“I hate to say this because I know there’s going to be kids that hear this. For me, growing up, it was part of the game. That’s what it was. When I put my uniform on, I feel like that’s part of what I need to put on. It just goes with the job, for me. I’m trying to shake it off.”

Desmond mother practically begged him not to dip Sunday morning. He had listened, and then he blasted the biggest home run of the Nationals’ first week. It may have been a coincidence, but Desmond will hold on to it. “That’s incentive enough right there,” he said.

Good job, Ian. Good luck. Hope youhave more success at quitting than Terry Francona.

Ian’s decision to quit prompted a letter to the editor from James T. Currie from the Public Health Service congratulating him.

baseball, Chew in baseball, Chewing tobacco, Mouth cancer

Swallowed chew causes big league player to leave game

April 5, 2014 Pepe Lepew 2 Comments

From the “You just can’t make this stuff up” department.

Colorado Rockies centre fielder Carlos Gomez (hey, didn’t he once play for the Twins, Steve Lardy?) had to leave a game because he felt dizzy and sick to his stomach.

Well, it turns out he got sick because he actually accidentally swallowed his tobacco chew.

… cautious relief gave way to comic relief after the game, when Colorado manager Walt Weiss offered a description of what factored into Gonzalez’s condition to MLB.com’s Thomas Harding:

“He might’ve swallowed some dip or something. He landed hard, knocked the wind out of himself, swallowed some dip, dehydration, all those things were factors.”

Nasty! Carlos, you might want to switch to bubble gum. If for no other reason, your mouth, throat and teeth may thank you 20 years from. Wonder when or if baseball is going to ban dip? They’ve talked about it, but apparently haven’t done so yet. It is banned in the minors.

Amazingly, this is not the first time this has ever happened. According to this article, Josh Ortmon, a pitcher with the Cleveland Indians, ended up on the Disabled List because he pulled a muscle throwing up after swallowing his chew.