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Chatelain: Knocking Smokeless Tobacco Out Of The Park Is Long Overdue


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It’s been 20 years since former Dodgers outfielder Brett Butler, who chewed tobacco for years, revealed he had throat cancer.

Since that time, Tony Gwynn has died of cancer he believed was caused by using chewing tobacco, and Curt Schilling has been diagnosed with mouth cancer he blames, too, on the nasty habit.

Yet here we are in 2016, and Major League Baseball players are still shoving wads of tobacco under their lips and hocking dark-colored loogies all over the field.

The players’ union has been the roadblock in ridding the big leagues of the substance, and it’s no wonder why: Many players are hooked on the stuff.