The NFL fully earned the title of “No Fun League” over the last ten to fifteen years. Now, belatedly but most assuredly, Major League Baseball and the cities that host their stadiums strive to make MLB the “Make Life Boring” league.
According to NBC’s “Hardball Talk,” on Tuesday, Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, became the 12th major league ballpark to ban smokeless tobacco with fines ranging from $100 to $250 dollars.
The irony of a ballpark synonymous with brewing beer having to use a smokeless tobacco ban to preserve the health and pleasant viewing experiences of fans should not get lost on anyone. The ballpark certainly needs to cut down on all those incidents of fans dipping and driving, the smokeless tobacco-induced fights, and the fans that pass out in the stands from binge dipping.
Ironically, Major League Baseball stadiums have never enforced these types of smokeless tobacco ordinances against players in the clubhouses or on the field, “Hardball Talk” wrote, they’ve only applied to fans in the stands. That’s especially strange, since Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn’s death from cancer of the salivary gland was one of the major catalysts for these types of ordinances, though some dispute whether the cause of Gwynn’s cancer was tobacco related.
Does smokeless tobacco pose a threat to someone who not using it? Whether you believe the science behind second-hand smoke or not, at least with smoking you have the threat of inhaling someone else’s smoke. What threat does the person dipping next to me present?
Oh well, not for me to worry my simple self about. The city of Milwaukee has deemed us unfit to make our own health related decisions. They’ve got it all figured out, clearly.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn