#62.4 – Holy Spit: A Look at Tobacco in Baseball

#62.4 – Holy Spit: A Look at Tobacco in Baseball - with John Hartley and Geoff Peterfy 0:00 17:42

Tobacco in baseball has an intriguing history and one that is like that of a scorned lover. At the end of 2016, the labor agreements are up for renewal, leading to a “will they or won’t they” situation. Will the MLB totally obliterate smokeless tobacco from baseball? Or will they stay out of it for the most part as long as players go dipless during interviews and autograph signings.

The beginning of smokeless tobacco in baseball

Baseball and tobacco grew up together in America. Both made their mark on our history in the mid 1800s and while tobacco was proven to be dangerous several different times, baseball players continue to turn their noses up at science and turn their lips and cheeks out for that sweet, sweet tabacky.

In the late 1800s, the average American (including ballplayers) was going through roughly 3 pounds of tobacco per day. That was before a German microbiologist by the name of Robert Koch suggested that spitting contributed to the spread of tuberculosis. No bueno. Chewing died down for a bit, but it was bound to rear its head again.

Oops, Tobacco is bad!

While most Americans gave up smokeless tobacco for cigarettes, baseball players continued with it as rumors swirled that cigarettes could cause fatigue and lead to hitting slumps. Slumps and fatigue are both quite possibly true, but that could be said of any profession where one was a smoker. We know today that smoking affects the lungs which could most definitely lead to poor hitting performances. Surprisingly (or maybe not), this superstition came from a sport where players actively smoked during the game. Can you imagine Bryce Harper smoking a stogie?

Aside from superstition, players felt smokeless tobacco had its benefits. Some accounts say that due to the dusty infields of the day, infielders would chew to keep their mouths from getting dry. So what, your mouth gets dry, no biggie. Actually, fairly big biggie. Gloves were and still are made out of leather and can get stiff over time. Think about what you do with a mitt as soon as you buy it. You oil it up, bake it, anything to keep it loose. Due to the glove tightness, players would spit their mouth juices into the mitts to keep them flexible during the game. They could also spit into their gloves to add a little extra gunk to their pitches.

One last little blip about cigarettes and baseball, the two were closely related for consumers of the sport and the hobby. Cards of players could be found in cigarette packs and one such player was the legendary Honus Wagner. In 1909 the American Tobacco Company added his card into their cigarettes without his permission. Threatening to sue, Wagner put a stop to the card’s production, leading to its rarity. Only 57 are known to exist.

Just kidding, tobacco is fine!

The use of dip or smokeless tobacco really took off in the 60s, but from the beginning of the 1900s to the 40s any big baseball player was associated with different brands of cigarettes or cigars. It was hard to find a player that didn’t seem to be endorsing a smoking product. Willie Hays, Lou Gehrig were a few and Babe Ruth (who later died of throat cancer) can be seen in an ad saying “Now medical science! Proof Positive! No other leading cigarette is safer to smoke.” When the 60s rolled around, people finally realized, oh, these cancer sticks aren’t great for we who have to run around quite a bit for our job. Top brass in the MLB wrote legislation prohibiting players from appearing in ads for cigarettes, which opened smokeless tobacco right back up. In went the dips and out went the cigarettes.

Players continued using smokeless tobacco and spitting up a storm, but for the most part it started to phase out as players have become more wise to the negatives associated with dipping, but it is definitely not unusual to see a player dipping. There do seem to be some added benefits for players, included added focus, relaxation, but most players end up pointing to it just being habit. Some have said that smokeless tobacco has positive effects that should put it on the World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited list. On the flip side, ballplayers have horror stories of accidentally swallowing their dip during baserunning collisions, drinking from the Gatorade bottle that they’ve been spitting into and more nastiness.

In the 1986 World Series, research was done that analyzed the game 5 telecast between the Mets and the Red Sox. Of the total game time (roughly 3 hours) tobacco use was in plain site for 24 minutes, about 1 minute out of every 6. For the younger generation, the sandlot crews, dip became something that was a symbol of how cool you were.

I know people that dip and you probably do as well. “When you dip, I dip, we dip.” You think that song is about dancing? No sir. It’s about smokeless tobacco. Of course it’s not actually about that, but the 1997 hit by Freak Nasty came out 4 years after tobacco products were completely banned in the minor leagues.

When a study was done in 1999, it showed that a third of 862 surveyed rookies used some form of smokeless tobacco. of those, two in three did so because they saw family, friends or one of their coaches use it. The survey is a bit scary, mainly because smokeless tobacco was banned from the minors in 1993. Six years later and a third of rookies are still heavy smokeless tobacco users? It definitely raises some interesting questions about peer pressure.

Oh sorry guys, I guess tobacco in baseball really is bad

It is the hope of the MLB that smokeless tobacco in baseball is not a futile fight. In 2012 they added a rule (specifically Agreement 28 of the 2012-16 labor agreement) that ballplayer would follow this rule:

“The use of smokeless tobacco by Players, managers and coaches during televised interviews or Paragraph 3(b) appearances on behalf of the Club is prohibited. At any time when fans are permitted into the ballpark, Players, managers, coaches and other on-field personnel will conceal tobacco products (including tobacco tins or packages) and may not carry tobacco products (including tobacco tins or packages) in their uniform or on their body.”

Basically no showing that you are dipping before and after games. For those three hours though, lose your mind to the wacky tobacky…just don’t let anyone see that can! The agreement did bring up some other helpful points though. Players now receive an oral exam as a part of their physicals, to find early signs of oral cancer. Players can also receive therapy or educational materials explaining why smokeless tobacco in baseball may not be such a great idea.

You can still see bulging cheeks and lips in every game. Do some use bubble gum instead of a dip? Possibly. Are people still using smokeless tobacco in baseball? Most definitely. With the death of Tony Gwyn of oral cancer in 2014, some speculate that the next labor agreement (set for December 2016) will include harsher language about the subject, especially with the knowledge that anyone that uses smokeless tobacco has a risk of oral cancer four times higher than non-smokeless tobacco users.

Reiterating, current rules do not prevent players from dipping. The rules do discourage it though “Players are not allowed to have tobacco packages and tins in their back pockets when fans are permitted in the ballpark, or use tobacco during pregame or postgame interviews, and at team functions.” Some ballparks have taken it into their own hands, especially California, prohibiting smokeless tobacco from being used in their stadiums, but there are no lip police walking around to make sure the rules are followed.

The clouds part, a solution appears

The driving factor here is the nicotine addiction. If ballplayers get into smokeless tobacco at an early age, they’re highly likely to be addicted by the time they get to the majors. One company is attempting to help cure the addiction by swapping out dips of tobacco with dips of coffee. Grinds Coffee Pouches has a whole line of smokeless tobacco alternatives in the same flavors of the most popular chews and yes that includes wintergreen. The idea is that players can still get roughly the same feeling of having a dip in (you place the pouch in your lip) without any of the nasty side effects. From their site “When you have a Grinds pouch in, you’re essentially brewing the coffee in your mouth.” Yep, that means not only is this an alternative for smokeless tobacco, it’s also a spitless alternative. Grinds is working hard to get their product in every MLB dugout seem to be gaining quite a bit of ground.

Some other alternatives that you see throughout baseball are sunflower seeds and chewing gum. Terry Francona is a huge bubble gum guy and if you watch carefully in the upcoming playoffs you can catch him popping ten to one hundred pieces of gum into his mouth. Is there tobacco hidden in there? Not sure, but it would take a major extraction team to get it out of all that gum.

Will things change with the new labor agreements at the end of the year? Hard to tell, but one thing’s for sure. It sure seems like people are coming up with good ways to not use smokeless tobacco. My prediction is that by 2025 smokeless tobacco will be almost entirely out of baseball.