Montco and Other State Schools Sparked by MLB Tobacco Abuse

By: Jordan Ly

BLUE BELL, PA--Students who play in the National Junior College Athletic Association, known as the NJCAA and National Collegiate Athletic Association, known as the NCAA both agree that the MLB tobacco policy affects World Series viewers, other avid baseball fans, and college players, when professional baseball players are seen with smokeless chewing tobacco substance. The influence of MLB players’ abuse on chewing tobacco has been a problem for a long period of time now, and is one of the oldest traditions and rituals from the mid-19th influences of players like Babe Ruth, who lost his life to throat cancer, is still at large in baseball today, which is why most of the players today do it. “I do it because it gives me a buzz, like a sudden burst of energy, and makes me feel like the pros,” says the Bloomsburg Huskie first baseman Joseph Casselberry. “It also helps me keep stress off my mind and focused on the game when I’m waiting in the dugout.”

ESPN says in 2011, the policy limits the use of chewing tobacco, but does not expel it from games. The chewing tobacco problem was brought up during the 2011 World Series by fans, health officials, and the MLB congress. It restricts them from carrying tobacco tins in their pockets and uniforms during games, and also from being strongly visible to fan events like autograph signings, in game interviews, and post-game interviews. These rules are to influence and prevent college players from using the substance before entering the pros. In the 2013 World Series, players like MVP David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox is easily seen at bat with the century. From the tobacco in his lip, or MLB all-star catcher of the St Louis Cardinals Yadier Molina spitting out brown substance in the dugout from his jaw. The usage can still influence young children or aspiring high school baseball athletes because it is very visible on television screens, whether they are permitted to carry the tins.

Even the baseball managers, like Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona, and hitting coaches in the dugout have been spotted on live television, The substance has been linked to gum and throat disease and having warning labels on the tins that are usually ignored. Both the NJCAA and NCAA have ban the chewing tobacco known as “dip” and crack down hard on student players who are visibly caught during games or practice. The punishments are harsh and can get you in to a lot of trouble in the future. Some college athletes don’t share the same rituals as the MLB players. “If you get caught with that stuff, you yourself can get suspended and kicked out of a game, even the coaches can get in trouble,” says pitcher of the Montgomery Community college Mustangs, Chuck Delagol. “College players still do it all the time, but I don’t think it is worth the risk.” Though the MLB congress and labor deal has made more strict rules: the old tradition looks like it will stay and bring it on the new generation of present and future baseball players.