The Simsbury Taverneers use pine tar for safety’s sake.  We did have a bat slip out of a player’s hand in 2004 and hit a spectator in the face.  We don’t want that to ever happen again!

As for chew, personally I think we should remember that our games attract a lot of youth fans and that means that, as when we all coach Little League teams, we should serve as role models.  Since we are typically not allowed to chew tobacco around kids, we might want to consider doing the same in our vintage games.  Since the Simsbury Taverneers play at the Simsbury High School, there is a rule that no tobacco products of any kind are allowed to be consumed on school grounds.  And a quick search on Google finds many references to baseball stars who met a sorry fate as a result of smokeless tobacco:  I suppose each team needs to set their own policy and culture but our team does not chew although I know a few guys would like to.

****************************

From some tobacco safety website:

Take Bill Tuttle, for example. An outfielder for the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Athletics (before they moved to Oakland), and the Minnesota Twins, Tuttle chewed tobacco for most of his career. In fact, a lot of Tuttle's baseball cards over the years pictured him with a cheek bulging with chewing tobacco. Thirty-eight years after the end of his baseball career, Tuttle had a more ominous bulge in his cheek - a huge tumor that was so big that it came through his cheek and extended through his skin. Doctors removed the tumor, along with much of Tuttle's face. Chewing tobacco as a young man had cost him his jawbone, his right cheekbone, a lot of his teeth and gum line, and his taste buds. Cancer caused by his chewing habit finally claimed him in 1998, but Tuttle spent the rest of his life trying to steer young people, as well as grown athletes, away from smokeless tobacco.

Other baseball players have met a similar fate. Even one of the greatest of all time, Babe Ruth, was fond of dipping and chewing tobacco. He died at age 52 of an oropharyngeal tumor, which is a cancerous tumor in the back part of the throat.

-----Original Message-----
From: newenglandvintagebaseball@yahoogroups.com [mailto:newenglandvintagebaseball@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of pete duda
Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 4:38 AM
To: newenglandvintagebaseball@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [newenglandvintagebaseball] Chewing Tobacco & Pine Tar

The Granite have the same position.  The pine tar is for safety's sake and the chew is just so damn good.  Remember Copenhagen has been around since 1822 and Levi Garret has been in business since 1782.

vincent torilli <vinntor@...> wrote:

Not only are they allowed in our games (Cornish Game
Hens of Providence), they are encouraged. This is my
opinion and I don't know how anyone else feels.

--- adonisterry <dgenovese@...> wrote:

> More questions from the Wheelmen. What is the word
> on chewing tobacco
> and pine tar. Are they allowed in 1886 play?
>
>
>
>


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