Spitting and Chewing Like a Major League Baseball Player

“They’re chewin’ toback

Bubblegum, Zwieback;

They’re swearin’ and scratchin’ and such.

All drivel and drool,

They’re lookin’ so cool;

No wonder we love ‘em so much!”

I love baseball. I started playing baseball as kid, and I enjoyed playing the sport in Little League, Senior League, and on my high school team. Later in life, I played in an adult league in my area. I love all aspects of the game. However, as I watch Major League baseball, I have a couple of questions about the propensity of players to do a couple of seemingly unnecessary things.

Why are baseball players allowed to eat and spit all game long?

As far as I know, no other sport – indoor or outdoor – condones all of this expectorate ejecting and grub ingesting during the contest. Players of professional basketball, football, hockey, soccer, tennis, golfing and other major U.S. sports do not follow these game-time indulgences. Why does baseball? It seems all players eat, chew, and spit.

Kevin F. Sherry of the New York Post wonders about this too. Let's explore these habits of the sport.

Eating

Kevin F. Sherry writes …

“Every MLB dugout is stocked with buckets – actual buckets – of sunflower seeds, chewing gum, candy and energy bars. And all the players take advantage of it. Why wouldn’t they? In the average workplace, when someone brings in snacks, it’s an all-out sprint to get to them first. If your default workplace setting is “buckets of tasty snacks,” you’re probably going to partake.”

Every baseball player is chewing seeds. Not only do players munch on sunflower seeds off the field, but also they consume them on the field – while playing defense and even at bat. Players constantly chew the nuts and spit the shells while playing. From original to bacon to dill pickle, there is a sunflower seed flavor for everyone. Sunflower seed debris litters the dugouts and the diamonds.

Other sports may have a halftime break for some energy refreshment, but one would think professional baseball players, who spend the vast majority of the game either standing around or sitting on the bench, could make it through nine innings without needing constant seed reinforcement.

Oh, what about all of that bubble gum consumed by players during the game? Various studies have shown that chewing gum can lower stress, improve alertness and mood, and increase reaction time. Throwing caffeine into the mix by chewing on “energy gum,” like Gorilla Gum or Jolt, directly before competing has been shown to additionally enhance performance.

How can one stick of gum achieve all of that? It’s thought that chewing gum increases cerebral blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for regulating emotions and deciding on actions. Placebo or real? You decide.

How many other jobs can you think of where the employees, even the manager, routinely walk around looking like a chipmunk who has just had his wisdom teeth extracted? 

Spitting

“The pitcher steps back from the mound, his mitt arm extended to grab the ball from the catcher, he turns, he spits, faces the batter to focus on another pitch. The batter steps back from home plate, adjusts his gloves, spits into the dirt and returns to face the pitcher.

“By the fifth inning, it got to me. By the eighth, I wanted to switch to a different channel or turn off the TV. The incessant spitting, whether in the field, at bat, on base or in the dugouts, is, pure and simple, disgusting.”

(Richard C. Gross. “Baseball's Spitting Image.” The Baltimore Sun.

November 01, 2016.)

Kevin Sherry wonders if the need to spit so much has anything to do with the players' excess saliva because of all the gum and seeds they eat during the game. Can you imagine participants of other sports spitting loogies on the courts or fairways of their games? In 2011, Tiger Woods spit on the 12th green after missing a putt at the Dubai Desert Classic, and immediately after the contest meetings were held, and Woods was fined an undisclosed sum for his nasty behavior.

Baseball players seem to spit all the time. According to Sherry: “In a highly unscientific viewing survey by this fan, players, coaches and managers spit an average of once every 30 seconds.”

It is common belief that spitting originated in the days of chewing tobacco. Tobacco has been marginalized by MLB. As of May 2018, smokeless tobacco is now banned in half of major-league stadiums. Under MLB’s 2016 collective bargaining agreement, smokeless tobacco was banned for all new major league players.

Speaking of a the next oral stimulant, some players now have a new fixation. They’ve switched to filling their mouths with coffee grounds. Baseball players are sticking mini prepackaged pouches of ground-up flavored coffee beans into their mouths. Known by the brand name Grinds, the caffeine-packed product has become a way for addicts to wean themselves off traditional smokeless tobacco products (like nicotine, caffeine can be absorbed through your gums).

San Francisco Giants Manager Bruce Bochy was an early adopter of the tobacco alternative, and he introduced the product to the locker room of the World Series champs back in 2010.

“I don’t remember when I learned about Grinds, but you are starting to see them a lot more. I would say that about 50 percent of minor leaguers try them and use them,” says Josh Hader, a pitcher in the Houston Astros minor league system.

With most players not chewing tobacco anymore, why do they continue to spit? Many say it's just one of those baseball “things” – a ritual of the sport. I guess it's just a baseball tradition and an inherited behavior. But, so much spitting is disgusting and highly unnecessary. In the era of high-resolution, large screen television coverage, no one wants to view an expectorate exhibition of constant drool and dribble.

Dwight Hamner, journalist and biochemist, offers many reasons for Major Leaguers to eat and drink during a game. He says …

“For guys who are in the starting lineup, their adrenaline level is already sky high, so they have to manage that. Part of that management is what to do with the excess of spit that forms in high-adrenaline situations coupled with fear causing dry-mouth.

“And guys get scared: they're scared of failure, mostly, but occasionally there is a basic fear of someone throwing 100 MPH within inches of their vital parts, or there's a fear of injury, usually right after a collision.

“And there are occasionally some guys who need a little help getting amped up sufficiently, because maybe they were out a little too late or they got in to town at 4:00 am, etc. Coffee is the drug of choice these days, since amphetamines are no longer permitted. Ritalin is also over-represented among modern baseball players. But some guys chew a little nicotine for the steady little boost that gives.

“And some guys do it because it looks cool. At least to them. When they were kids, and they saw their hero with a wad of something in his cheek, they grew up wanting to do the same thing. Doubt that premise? Watch film of the Little League World Series. A few years ago, when my nephew's team was in the finals, every kid stuck his rear hand up to the ump just like Derek Jeter.

(Dwight Hamner. “What exactly do the players, coaches, etc. keep chewing during professional baseball games? Why?” Quora.)

Admiration by little league baseball players of the big guys in baseball often leads them to mimic certain behaviors. The rough-hewn image of the slugger-with-chaw has been persistent, and almost as celebrated. Major League outfielder Tony Colabello said much of the spitting has to do with imitation. He says …

“You saw guys on TV spit, you want to spit like the big league ballplayers. When you’re 5 running around, you go out and spit.”

Baseball players' supply of saliva must be inexhaustible. They spit and spit and spit ... and then spit some more. The result has to be unhealthy, and it is disgusting at all times. The British Health Protection agency (2009) said as much when complaining about soccer players letting go on the pitch … 

"Spitting is disgusting at all times. It's unhygienic and unhealthy, particularly if you spit close to other people. Footballers, like the rest of us, wouldn't spit indoors so they shouldn't do it on the football pitch. If they are spitting near other people it could certainly increase the risk of passing on infections. Certainly, spitting is a nasty habit that should be discouraged — and it should be discouraged by the clubs.”

But, then again, baseball is steeped in tradition. People seem to accept all the blowing, seeding, and spitting as part of the game. I guess they have grown accustomed to the chucked-out humongous modules of saliva during the game. I'm not saying a spit here and there may be beneficial, yet I fail to see the need to water the fields and dugouts with spittle. Could it even distract from performance? Or, is all of this protest from me amounting to just a spit in the ocean.

“'They chew tobacco?' the confused child asks.
'That’s disgusting! Why do they chew tobacco, dad?'
And so, revealed to the youngster at this moment:
Baseball players chew tobacco,
The players’ cheeks and lips bulge with the bitter stuff,
They spit brown spit;

“How can you, the parent, respond?
'It’s just what they do,
They’ve always done it.'
That’s Exhibit A of the charge Extremely Lame Parenting

Excerpt from “Why Do They Chew Tobacco, Dad?” By Steve Hermanos