When he was 11, Rob Nelson cherished the 1959 Bazooka baseball card of legendary White Sox second baseman Nellie Fox, which featured his hero gripping a thick-handled bat and packing a big wad of tobacco hat bulged from his left cheek.
“I was called ‘Nellie’ too so I always wanted to stuff my mouth with bubble gum as a kid so I could look like the real Nellie,’’ said Nelson, 69, who grew up a Mets fan in Long Island, N.Y.
That boyhood desire never left Nelson, the inventor of Big League Chew who hatched a plan one night sitting next to Jim Bouton in the bullpen of the Portland Mavericks.