What is this World Coming To

[madox07]

Seriously, I know there is a craze against tobacco in the US but this is too much. So last night I cam home from work, and since I have recently discovered a channel that distributes full mlb games in hd , I put on a ball game. When I lived in the states I never cared much for football, but since I went to the Round Rock Express games - some AAA team in TX, I fell in love with baseball. I can hardly watch it in Europe, I must have had a 10 year lapse before I found this channel (mlb.tv is just too expensive especially since there is such a time delay between the continents). So I am sitting back in my living room, crack open a beer, take a sip and when I saw the buckets of chewing gum I was like that cartoon character spitting beer all over my tv. What? Chewing gum instead of tobacco? Really? Players chewing and dipping was part of playing baseball, just like peanuts, beer, and fridos are part of the stadium. What is this world coming to?

 

[jaytex1969]

Unit madox07, report immediately to Central Programming for re-calibration.

 

[shayde]

The military is the only place that I’ve found in these United States where the majority of people continue to use tobacco products. That and I’m pretty sure high school kids back home (in Michigan) still use dipping tobacco, I know we did growing up!

 

[Chasing Embers]

The military is the only place that I’ve found in these United States where the majority of people continue to use tobacco products.

Haven't been to central Kentucky have you? Use any tobacco product around here and no one really bats an eye.

 

[shayde]

My parents have actually moved to Florence and I’ve been anxious to stop by Strauss and try that seasonal aromatic everyone always raves over. But alas I haven’t been yet.

 

[odobenus]

Fear not, chew/dip is alive and well in most of the places I've lived (the Rocky Mtn. West).

And still administered to ranch dogs when they have worms.

I dated a girl who chewed tobacco at the movies. Her truck had numerous plastic bottles of spit rolling around on the floor of the cab.

 

[mikethompson]

Her truck had numerous plastic bottles of spit rolling around on the floor of the cab.

gross.
I think MLB players went off chewing tobacco a long time ago. I haven't seen a game in years but I don't recall ever seeing it at a game.

 

[frankrem]

Well hell that is how you can tell a guy in Oklahoma has a girlfriend - You'll find spit on both sides of the truck.

 

[husky]

I think MLB players went off chewing tobacco a long time ago. I haven't seen a game in years but I don't recall ever seeing it at a game.

Perhaps it fell under the doping regulations?

 

[redglow]

A lot of today's players grew up in the PC high school and college world. Tobacco has probably never been permitted in their sterile world.

 

[acidpox]

Embers, I live in central Kentucky and I can totally vouch for you statement

 

[spartacus]

It's still alive in MLB. The networks try not to show it. I know players that dip. The Minor Leagues are a different story. All tobacco is prohibited in the dugout and during the game. A lot of MLB player have come out against it (Curt Schilling).
It hit a frenzy when Tony Guinn died from it.
MLB AGAINST TOBACCO

 

[elbert]

Tobacco is alive and well in the working man's world. Along with other smokables of a less savory nature.
The university I took my degree from banned smoking in its buildings. But try telling that to a tenured professor of history, who was also deacon at the church. He smoked in it until he retired.

 

[p40warhawk]

Good luck in California, unless it Marijuana, they give you the evil eye...

I think Pipe Smokers are little bit more accepted, but still...
Cannot wait till I retire and get to ANOTHER State that is less crazy/nuts/batty...
Dan

 

[warren]

Players chewing and dipping was part of playing baseball,

Maybe as a child imitating the adult heroes of the game. I bet you enjoy watching the ballplayers adjusting their "wedding tackle" during the game also.
No tobacco means cleaner uniforms, cleaner dugouts, no spitting tobacco on the umpire's shoes, etc. And, most importantly, you failed to acknowledge the MLB's serious and constant battle against cancer. So, baseball has indeed moved on from tobacco which, in the final analyses, had no impact on how the game was played. Hard slides into second are verboten, no blocking the plate by catchers, head hunting by pitchers is quickly stifled, some other changes in the written and the unwritten rules of baseball have changed the game much more drastically than the lack of tobacco use. I bet you can't wait until balls and strikes are called by computers. My God man! What will that do to your enjoyment of watching a baseball game?

 

[pepesdad1]

acidpox stated: "Embers, I live in central Kentucky and I can totally vouch for you statement" Having just come back from southern corner of Ky. I can vouch for tobacco being a staple of this fine area...smoked my cobs and got compliments on the tobacco smoked...butternut burley at that particular time...didn't see any other pipe smokers in the whole time I was in Ky and West Va....about a month's time.

 

[puffy]

I've never found anything pleasant about seeing someone spit tobacco juice.

 

[mso489]

I always thought the chaw was the least of the uppers used by players to spot the fast balls and effect the double plays, etc. Despite the gradual pace of the game, when there's action, it is milliseconds. A friend who played semi-pro (catcher) confirmed this, at least from his point of view. If the Wrigleys doesn't do it, there may be shortstops' little helpers in with it. My dad cured me of chaw by offering a healthy pinch when I was small. I turned chartreuse.

 

[danimalia]

Oh yeah, Mso. The rate of players who suffer from various ADD type disorders, and thus qualify for therapeutic use exemptions for amphetamines, is insane compared to the general population.
As for dip and chew, they are trying to reduce its use and hide it as Spartacus mentioned. That's not inherently a bad thing, IMO. Lots of players still use it, though. They just walk into the tunnel or clubhouse to grab some instead of doing the Juan Uribe thing.

Oracle Park (aka AT&T/SBC/Pac Bell) here in San Francisco has actually banned it from the premises. I mean, sure it's outrageous, but OTOH, who cares? Nobody is going around checking the contents of your lips and mouth.

 

[acidpox]

Pepesdad1, yeah pipes are not very popular around here as far as I can tell, I'm the only person I personally know that smokes a pipe. Mostly Cigarettes and dip. I wish it was more popular so the local tobacco shops would actually carry more pipe stuff than cobs, grabows and otc blends.