ST. PETERSBURG — Rays reliever Dana Eveland went to junior college in Texas. That’s where he began chewing tobacco.
“Everybody in Texas chewed,” he said.
So does Eveland’s dad, Jim.
“My dad did my whole entire childhood,” Eveland said. “So I was always around it.”
But Eveland didn’t begin chewing until he attended college.
“Guys were always offering a dip. ‘Try it out. You got to try it.’ I got peer-pressured into it,” Eveland said. “Hated it the first five times I did it, and for some reason kept doing it, and I started to like it a little more, and here we are, 15 years later, whatever it is.