{"id":2149,"date":"2014-04-30T21:36:26","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T21:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2149"},"modified":"2014-05-24T19:03:58","modified_gmt":"2014-05-24T19:03:58","slug":"baseball-stars-who-endorsed-tobacco-products-a-lot-of-them-died-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2149","title":{"rendered":"Baseball stars who endorsed tobacco products — a lot of them died young"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Roger<\/a>
Roger Maris died of cancer at 50<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Again, another idea from Haruko.<\/p>\n

She showed me an ad with Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams advertising cigarettes and I got the bright idea to see how many ads there had been with baseball stars hawking tobacco products.<\/p>\n

And when I looked, I said, “WHOA!”<\/p>\n

I found dozens upon dozens upon dozens of ads going all the way back to the early 1900s. I was really shocked. I had never seen these ads before. I knew full well that tobacco companies had used many, many movie stars over the years to sell cigarettes, but I wasn’t aware of all the baseball ads.<\/p>\n

The first ad that popped up hit me like a ton of bricks — Roger Maris. Roger Maris, as we all know, smoked five packs a day to deal with the stress of going after Babe Ruth’s home run record. He also died at the age of 50 from cancer. (Strangely enough, his family has always been fiercely private about what exactly Maris died of. There’s been varying reports that he died either of head and neck cancer, lung cancer, lymph gland cancer or lymphoma; I’ve found articles saying all four. The family has always been reticent to discuss it and the story seems to have changed at times about what exact kind of cancer he had. All I can think of is they don’t want people saying, “Well, Maris did it to himself.” Anyway, I digress. He died of cancer. At the age of 50.)<\/p>\n

Maris also had a fairly short career. He was basically done at 30 and completely out of baseball at 33. I’ve always wondered if his heavy smoking habit helped break his body down so quickly. It definitely couldn’t have helped.<\/p>\n

\"Babe<\/a>
Babe Ruth died of throat cancer at 53<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another ad that jumped out of me was Babe Ruth endorsing Old Gold. He was a smoker and chewer who died of throat cancer at 53. There’s more. DiMaggio was in a ton of cigarette ads. And while he lived into his 80s, he died of lung disease (likely COPD). Another one that jumped out at me — Jackie Robinson, who died at 52 of diabetes (and it’s known today, not then, that smoking is a risk factor for diabetes).<\/p>\n

Another tobacco ad featured Harry Heilmann, a very good hitter in the 1920s. He died of lung cancer at the age of 56. Another chew ad featured Nellie Fox, a Hall of Famer who died at 47 of melanoma.<\/p>\n

Anyway, here is a slideshow of these old baseball tobacco ads:<\/p>\n

This slideshow requires JavaScript.<\/p>

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Again, another idea from Haruko. She showed me an ad with Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams advertising cigarettes and I got the bright idea to see how many ads there had been with baseball stars hawking tobacco products. And when I looked, I said, “WHOA!” I found dozens upon dozens upon dozens of … Continue reading Baseball stars who endorsed tobacco products — a lot of them died young<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,70,72,1],"tags":[90,277,276],"class_list":["post-2149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baseball","category-tobacco-advertising","category-tobacco-in-history","category-uncategorized","tag-baseball-2","tag-roger-maris","tag-tobacco-advertising-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Maris.jpg?fit=399%2C458&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-yF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2932,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2932","url_meta":{"origin":2149,"position":0},"title":"Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids takes on Sports Illustrated over tobacco ads","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"February 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids slammed Sports Illustrated last week for continuing to take tobacco advertising. Magazines are split on taking tobacco advertising; quite a few refuse while others continue to take it. Very few newspapers will take tobacco advertising (believe it or not, while tobacco advertising is banned on television,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids"","block_context":{"text":"Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=441"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/2015_02_12_01_si.jpg?fit=504%2C470&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3336,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3336","url_meta":{"origin":2149,"position":1},"title":"George Case … one of the fastest men to ever play the game … and his son’s message about tobacco","author":"Haruko Haruhara","date":"June 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I hope I'm not stepping on Pepe's toes here, but here is a rare submission from me about smoking. George Case was a ballplayer I had never heard of before. Over the past few months, I've been reading the comments from his son in a baseball group I belong to.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "baseball"","block_context":{"text":"baseball","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/George_Case_Senators_12.jpg?fit=478%2C656&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2386,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2386","url_meta":{"origin":2149,"position":2},"title":"Curt Schilling reveals he has oral cancer, blames chewing tobacco","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chew in baseball"","block_context":{"text":"Chew in baseball","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=263"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/curt-schilling.jpg?fit=620%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/curt-schilling.jpg?fit=620%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/curt-schilling.jpg?fit=620%2C350&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3128,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3128","url_meta":{"origin":2149,"position":3},"title":"Arrrggghhh — Sports Illustrated April 20 edition: An ad for cigarettes, followed by an ad about lung cancer","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"April 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 This made my head explode. Sports Illustrated's policies on tobacco advertising are starting to make my head explode. We all know SI takes tobacco advertising -- a LOT of tobacco advertising. Not only do you find cigarette ads in nearly every issue, you will also find chewing tobacco ads\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Natural American Spirit"","block_context":{"text":"Natural American Spirit","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=493"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Si-ads.jpg?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Si-ads.jpg?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Si-ads.jpg?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Si-ads.jpg?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Si-ads.jpg?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3698,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3698","url_meta":{"origin":2149,"position":4},"title":"Jesus, Sports Illustrated, what the hell is wrong with you?","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A few months ago, I chastised Sports Illustrated for printing a bunch of photos of some Spanish golfer smoking cigars (I don't do golf, hell if I remember the guy's name, but he's apparently a big character on the Senior PGA Tour). SI Golf pushed it even further this month,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports Illustrated"","block_context":{"text":"Sports Illustrated","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=442"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SI-cover.jpg?fit=916%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SI-cover.jpg?fit=916%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SI-cover.jpg?fit=916%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/SI-cover.jpg?fit=916%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2259,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2259","url_meta":{"origin":2149,"position":5},"title":"Gil Hodges ad promoting cigarettes — Gil Hodges died of heart attack at 47","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"My old Oregon friend Bill posted this on a Gil Hodges should be in the Hall of Fame page. As I posted a few weeks ago, a lot of baseball players endorsed cigarettes. I found literally dozens of ads of baseball players endorsing either chew or cigarettes -- and a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "baseball"","block_context":{"text":"baseball","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Gil-Hodges.jpg?fit=593%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Gil-Hodges.jpg?fit=593%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Gil-Hodges.jpg?fit=593%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2149"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2263,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions\/2263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}