Bad News for Them to Chew

Opening day brought sobering news for players who chew tobacco.

A check of major league players during spring training found 59% of those who volunteered for oral exams had tobacco-related lesions. Eleven percent were serious enough to require biopsies to detect possible cancer.

“About 35% to 40% of major league players are [chewing tobacco] users, about half of those have lesions,” said Dr. John Greene, dean emeritus of the UC San Francisco School of Dentistry, who examined the players as part of the fledgling National Spit Tobacco Education Program. “Those are scary.”

Greene visited nine teams, discovering tissue damage in the mouths of 83 of 141 players. Fifteen required biopsies. Not all have been completed, but the most serious diagnosis to date is that of Philadelphia Phillie pitcher Curt Schilling.

His fondness for a chaw took him to the brink of cancer and forced him to quit on the spot after 15 years. Schilling had a white lesion removed March 12 and now wears a nicotine patch.

Greene said players who came saying, “I can quit anytime I want. I don’t need any help,” quickly changed their tune when they could see what was happening inside their own mouths.

“It really focused their attention when I could hold the mirror and say, ‘Look at this, this is what you have,’ ” Greene said. “And then many of them said, ‘I need help.’ ”

NSTEP, formed four years ago and headed by former player and broadcaster Joe Garagiola, received support from union head Don Fehr and Baltimore Oriole owner Peter Angelos, along with Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.

“Our baseball players have always been role models for young people, who for a long time thought this was part of the culture of being a baseball player,” Shalala said.

“We need to tell children over and over again, ‘You have to be a dip to use spit tobacco. Spit tobacco is not cool. It’s gross, it’s addictive, it causes cancer and other health problems. It can take you out of the game.”’