Do You Like The New MLB Rule Banning Dip?

So last week MLB and the MLB players union came to a new agreement that will ensure labor peace until at least through the 2021 season.

Maybe you feel different, but there aren’t huge changes ahead. Just some tweaks here and there. The most newsworthy item is that the All-Star game will no longer determine home-field advantage for the World Series.

But deeper in the new CBA is a clause that effectively puts a ban on chewing tobacco at the MLB level (evenutally).

And at first I was like ‘Yeah, get that stuff out of the game! Good for MLB!’. It’s objectively not good for anyone. Many people have suffered the consequences of smokeless tobacco use, including MLB great Tony Gwynn. And the kids, man. Are you even thinking about the kids?

Byeeeee, dip.

And then I saw this Tweet in response to a Ben Hochman article about the ban on STLToday.com:

If people want to drink, smoke, or chew tobacco, that's their business not MLB. You're not God anymore than Trump.https://t.co/REpYrzGdG6

— Scott (@TexasCardsFan1) December 3, 2016

And I was like ‘hmm, I guess not everyone is on board with this ban’. So I clicked the article and waded into the comment section.

Doesn’t happen often (and by often, I mean never), but maybe I was starting to think that a ban isn’t all that cool – I was being persuaded by an internet commenter.

Again – I don’t have a horse in this race – I neither play MLB baseball or use dip – but if I did, would I really want to be told I couldn’t? Where do you draw the line at what gets legislated or not? This other commenter brings up the ungodly mess that players make in the dugouts:

Should they make a rule about that? Players have to know that dipping isn’t good for them, right? This all feels slightly un-free for America’s pastime.

BUUUUUTTTT…

Is this any different than our employers or schools setting the rules? I can’t dip at work (at least I’m pretty sure I can’t dip at work) and I don’t feel like it’s all that unfair that they get to set that rule.

Ugh.

I’m confused.

Maybe you haven’t thought twice about this smokeless tobacco rule. Maybe you have. I guess I’m curious about what you think so I can look at the results and just return to being a sheeple.

Photo: ESPN