The Ban On Smokeless Tobacco For Yankees, Mets Is Downright Un-American

Alex Buscemi10 years ago

The longstanding tradition of dipping in Major League Baseball took another hit on Tuesday. The New York City Council approved a bill that will ban chew at Yankees Stadium and Citi Field.

From The Washington Post:

The vote was 44-3 in favor of the ban, according to the New York Times’ Tim Rohan, and comes a day after the bill was approved 7-1 by the council’s health committee.

Smokeless tobacco has already been banned from baseball stadiums in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and, as of last week, Chicago. The Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, and Pittsburgh Pirates do not allow smoking at their stadiums.

Since there is no risk of secondhand smoke inhalation, I think it is a shame that a grown man should be forced to drop his dip habit.

I saw this coming because of the whole “think of the children watching!” thing, but save the healthy lifestyle promotion bullshit for the other leagues. These are baseball players we’re talking about. They’ve never been about health. Let Peyton drill a fat kid in the dome for a Play60 commercial. Let Josh Hamilton pack a fat wad and spit out a glob of brown tobacco juice on live TV.

Baseball is about catchers heckling the batter. It’s about storming the mound when a player receives some intentional chin music. It’s about scratching your balls and hazing rookies in the dugout and stuffing half a tin in your face at once. It’s a dirty game. A beautiful, all-American, dirty game. Let’s keep it that way..

[via The Washington Post]

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