In the early 1980’s, as a young boy I saw Tony Gwynn play in Portland. Civic Stadium was home to the Triple-A Portland Beavers and San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate – the Las Vegas Stars – was in town, led by the 22-year-old future Hall Of Famer who by the end of his career would be considered one of the greatest hitters baseball had ever seen. I didn’t know him at the time, nor did I know what he’d amount to over the extent of his 20 year career. But I remembered his name, followed his career due to it, and now shake my head at the thought of such a wonderful steward of the game, leaving us as a result of a disease likely brought-on by a nasty, but all-too-popular habit: Chewing tobacco.
I saw it then and still see it now. In the dugout, on the golf course, even in living rooms during ball games and movies. Chewing tobacco is the seemingly kinder neighbor of the popularly vilified addiction known as smoking. I’m old enough to remember a friendlier time to smokers. A time when most adults participated, ash trays were on every table, and little was thought of smoke filled bars, restaurants, and even airplanes. But while rampant throughout society and socially accepted by the masses, even then the ill effects of the cancerous disease were being publicized to our youth, and discouraged by the very people hypocritically leading by example.
Now it’s chewing tobacco’s turn.
I’m not suggesting we ban it or denigrate it to the extent that smoking and smokers have been subject to for the better part of the last 2 decades. After all, while smoking invades privacy and adversely affects the health of those around you, chewing tobacco – while providing the unsavory scenery that is a spit receptacle – harms only the perpetrator and lacks the stigma partially responsible for fueling the campaign accountable for smoking’s falling numbers. But I would like to see individuals in positions of influence take a more active role in discouraging its use and do a better job of informing beginners of the adverse effects of a sneaky deadly habit.
A survey issued in 1999 revealed that roughly one third of all Major League Baseball rookies were regularly using chewing tobacco. It has slowly declined throughout the early 2000’s, but it wasn’t until 2011 that MLB implemented rules designed to discourage its use, including prohibiting clubs from providing it to their players, banning tobacco tins in their uniforms, and fining players for conducting interviews while using chewing tobacco. Baseball recognized it as a problem and voiced concerns over its popularity trickling down to the young people following their game. It may not be their job to make decisions for the adults playing their game, but it is their responsibility to at least educate the impressionable audience likely to imitate those same idols out of the reach of baseball’s arm of the law.
And it’s not just a baseball problem. A significant number of golfers chew, rodeo and race car professionals predictably chew, and the NFL’s Jim Kelly (the Buffalo Bill Hall Of Fame quarterback) is in the midst of a battle similar to that which took the life of Tony Gwynn, and was likely a product of a lifetime habit of chewing tobacco.
It’s a problem without limitations, and a problem perpetuated by the sports heroes you, I, and more importantly our kids do and have looked up to. And as a result, were losing the type of people our kids would be best served by idolizing, opposed to some of the knuckleheads they do.
Tony Gwynn was a great baseball player, but by all accounts was a person more worthy of admiration for what he did off the field, opposed to the notably great things he did on it. I was vaguely familiar with his condition prior to Monday morning, but had heard little of the battle which eventually took his life. I feel for his family and mourn the early exit of a player, coach, and person worthy of the utmost respect, but most of all I shake my head at the habit likely responsible for taking that great person … way before his time.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
