Who Needs Freedom? CA Democrat Wants to Ban Chewing Tobacco in Major League Baseball

by Warner Todd Huston | February 24, 2015 6:09 pm

Because all the world’s troubles are solved and because Democrats don’t care about that all that silly “freedom” stuff, a Democrat in California has filed a bill to ban Major League Baseball players from chewing tobacco during a game.

Democrat Tony Thurmond filed the bill[1] in–where else–the California legislature this week.

Major League Baseball players would be banned from using chewing tobacco at games in California under a bill expected to be introduced in the state legislature on Tuesday, the first in a nationwide campaign planned by anti-tobacco activists.

The bill targets baseball’s ubiquitous habit less than a year after retired San Diego Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn died of cancer of the salivary glands, believed related to chewing tobacco or “dipping” it by lodging it between the lip and the gum.

“Tony Gwynn was somebody I thought was a spokesman for baseball, a great role model as a person,” said Assembly member Tony Thurmond, a Democrat who represents Richmond and other suburbs east of San Francisco and the bill’s author.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t use chaw–it seems disgusting to me. But just who do Democrats think they are to tell us what we are allowed to do like this? It’s a matter of freedom and these fascist Democrats should take a hike. If players want to use chewing tobacco, it is the players’ decision, not the business of some haughty, authoritarian Democrat.