USA TODAY: ….Throughout Major League Baseball, tobacco spit mixes with the shells of sunflower seeds and bubblegum wrappers on dugout floors. On paper if not in practice, smokeless tobacco has been banned by the minor leagues and by the NCAA, a reflection of the rising concern about oral cancer and other illnesses linked to tobacco.
Now, with support from Commissioner Bud Selig, Major League Baseball is weighing whether to strike down one of baseball’s grittiest traditions and prohibit tobacco use in the majors. But as baseball’s regular season wraps up Wednesday, followed by playoff openers Friday and Saturday, it’s clear that many players — whose union would have to agree to such a change — will resist.
Smokeless tobacco, long entwined with baseball history, has been part of their baseball upbringing, even as health warnings about it have increased. And a ban at the major league level, while pragmatic for the sake of health and appearance, isn’t a popular idea in team clubhouses… (more)
