Baseball's long association with chewing tobacco continues despite the risks
This story originally appeared in the Japanese newspaper Yukan Fuji in 2014.
TOKYO — Have you ever chewed tobacco? Did you ever stick a wad of tobacco in your cheek or a piece of snuff under your lip, spit out the juice and then get a feel-good buzz from the nicotine left over?
If you have then you are probably not Japanese, because most people in this country think that chewing tobacco or dipping snuff is a truly disgustingly filthy habit.
But in the United States, on the other hand, there is a long tradition of smokeless tobacco dating back to the early 19th century. In 1865, for example, it was estimated 70% of all people in the United States, both male and female, above the age of 12, chewed tobacco. Everywhere, in saloons, restaurants, barber shops, one could see spittoons, receptacles for receiving tobacco juice, spit out by tobacco chewing individuals. (Even today one can see these spittoons in the U.S. Senate chamber.)
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