Senate Democrats Want Tobacco Outlawed In Major League Baseball

WASHINGTON — Two Senate Democrats are urging Major League Baseball and the players union to ban smokeless tobacco, such as chew and dip.

Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey and Dick Durbin of Illinois say products like dip and chew endanger players' health and send "a dangerous message" to young fans.

In a letter, the senators urged Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and union chief Michael Weiner to agree to a ban in their next collective bargaining agreement. The current agreement expires in December.

Smokeless tobacco is banned in the minor leagues but not in the majors.

Union spokesman Greg Bouris said Tuesday he expects the issue to be discussed during collective bargaining talks. Rob Manfred, the league's executive vice president for labor relations, said the league is striving for a ban.

Comments

[AZreb]

11:17 AM on 02/17/2011

Good grief - we have convicted felons playing major league sports - looked up to as "heroes" by kids and the media and more than likely some of these politicians! But a legal product should not be used by adults? And our tax dollars pay these politicians (my actual name for them would not - and probably should not - be printed)!

[Ari Winkleman]

11:00 AM on 02/17/2011

I think they should ban it because it's disgusting to look at. I watched a kid on a bus spit his dip into a soda bottle for 2 hours on a bus. I'm scarred for life.

I don't think they should ban it because it's the player's right to use it.

[plebian3]

10:29 AM on 02/17/2011

The United States Senate, focused like a laser on Chewing Tobacco while the hucksters in the mortgage industry divest hard working Americans of their abodes through outright fraud. We have the best Con-gress money can buy, without a doubt.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

07:56 AM on 02/17/2011

This is filler nothing more or less, MLB is not concerned about this.

[Rocktopus]

02:37 AM on 02/17/2011

More validation of my decision to leave the Ban Everything Party.

[Samiiam]

11:33 PM on 02/16/2011

Is tis all our polls have to do. Bring Roger Clements back

[DrFunkenstein22]

10:48 PM on 02/16/2011

Totally unrelated note: Is anyone else having trouble backing out of articles on HP lately? I try to hit back and it just re-opens the article that I'm looking at. I find myself clicking in circles, so to speak just to check out articles that are in the same topic-section... annoying. Is this just to boost HP's total articles clicked on or is it my computer?

[DrFunkenstein22]

10:46 PM on 02/16/2011

I would find this hilarious if it wasn't so embarrassingly sad (and I'm not talking about the ball-players using tobacco).

[mfrantom]

10:36 PM on 02/16/2011

ridiculous

[Larkhill]

09:32 PM on 02/16/2011

The senate shouldn't do it but the owners should. Companies are allowed to control work place behavior. That's why most companies forbid smoking or spitting on the floor or wearing g-strings in the cubicle. They can make any rules they want to as the Yankees proved by forbidding beards and long hair.

And they should do it because it really is a terrible example that lots of young ballplayers then try to emulate. So, to all you outraged libertarians equating chewing tobacco with hot dogs and beer, joke about that to the next college player who is diagnosed with mouth cancer.

[ProudLiberalDemocrat]

02:59 PM on 02/16/2011

And we should never show players below the waist - they might touch something children shouldn't see.....

I'm all for a big government, but this is nonsense.

[steve11407]

02:51 PM on 02/16/2011

Elected officials mistaking public servant for public master.

[stagebandman]

01:51 PM on 02/16/2011

Look, I am an avid anti-tobacco guy, but as long as it is legal for people to purchase and use, there's absolutely no reason for a step like this. The whole idea is that it keeps the players mouths from drying out over the course of the game. Some guys don't like to chew gum. And some (ugh) chew a combination of bubblegum and tobacco. When are we just going to decide tobacco is dangerous and either ban it altogether, or just stop with the fake PC?

[spacemonkey5]

12:25 PM on 02/16/2011

ok, yea, and why you are at it, lets stop selling hot dogs and beer at games too.

great idea for baseball.........dripping with sarcasm (and a little skoal)

[iman927]

12:03 PM on 02/16/2011

Oh, liberals.

"Don't chew tobacco, but legalize pot!"