Chewing over tobacco use

With Art Charles

New Jersey Jackals first baseman Art Charles is bubbly, with a cool personality. Much about him shines. “I’m trying to get my teeth as white as the ones in the Orbit commercials,” he joked. “I’m trying to get one of those. I care very much about my hygiene and I can’t be chewing tobacco.”

But some of his teammates feel otherwise. “I can’t tell other players what they can and cannot do,” he said about the use of chewing tobacco in baseball. “They can read the label. It says may cause cancer on the box. It’s only illegal in minor and major leagues to chew tobacco. Me personally it’s not a thing I do, I mean it’s just that I like my mouth to be clean, I don’t want to sound like a germaphobe but I’m just not that guy. If I have teammates that do it, it’s just not my cup of tea.”

So should such a cancerous item be banned from baseball? “You know what’s crazy, there are baseball players that have chewed tobacco and have lost their jaws or had to have surgery on their jaws to get stuff cut out and it happens a lot,” he said. “People get cancer in there and it just amazes me that people still do it. It’s just one of the things that are a part of baseball. Baseball and sunflower seeds go together, baseball and hotdogs and etc. It’s just something that’s always been around the game like Crackerjacks.”