Chew tobacco, chew tobacco, chew tobacco, spit

Just about every ballpark you go to plays that Blake Shelton song, “Boys ‘round here” during warmups or batting practice:

Yeah the boys ‘round here
Drinking that ice cold beer
Talkin’ ‘bout girls, talkin’ ‘bout trucks
Runnin’ them red dirt roads out, kicking up dust
The boys ‘round here
Sending up a prayer to the man upstairs
Backwoods legit, don’t take no s**t
Chew tobacco, chew tobacco, chew tobacco, spit

Not my sort of song, but it’s a freakin’ ear worm anyway. That last line is the one that sticks in my head all the damn time too. I’ve found myself driving around down here going “Chew tobacco, chew tobacco, chew tobacco, spit” at random times. Just awful.

But definitely appropriate for ballparks. Because as Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe reports today, smokeless tobacco use among ballplayers is still pretty popular:

Smokeless tobacco use stubbornly remains a part of baseball, even though Major League Baseball has tried to discourage its use for the last few years because it is known to increase the risk of cancer. While smokeless tobacco use is not as prevalent in baseball as it was several years ago, a survey of the 58 Red Sox players invited to spring training this year found 21 who admitted to using it.

Abraham talks to David Ortiz, Jonny Gomes and many other Red Sox who talk about when they use and why. It’s a really interesting read, mostly because the players tend to talk about how they don’t really like the stuff, don’t do it all the time and aren’t addicted, yet they do it all the same, mostly out of routine. Because, I guess anyway, doing something you don’t particularly like out of habit ... is not addiction?

Anyway, go check it out. Good story.