As I’ve said before, I’m a lifelong Rangers fan. I’m as thrilled as anyone about their second consecutive World Series berth. But I’m also thoroughly disgusted by the ridiculous amounts of chaw that several players shove in their mouths before taking the field. Nelson Cruz and Neftali Feliz, in particular, look like they’re each struggling to find space for a second tongue. Are any other members of Clawntler Nation put off by this habit?
40 comments
I’m more put off by the term Clawntler [sic] Nation than the players dipping. Not because of the typo, but Clawantler Nation…if that somehow caught on, I’d vomit like I’d just swallowed a big piece of chaw.
In the immortal words of Ron Washington:
“Baseball is what baseball do”
I don’t mind the chaws. I’d rather not see a guy loading up in the dugout, as I saw Prince Fielder doing last night, but these guys won’t get the message until one of their peers comes down with tongue cancer. Then we’ll see how they react.
Ewwww…Honey Badger dips snuff…ewwww.
They do spit a lot.
Really? This is the best Rangers commentary you can come up with? This is something I would expect to read if my mother was a contributor on this blog. I am hereby revoking your man card.
“Clawntler Nation” is the worst portmanteau word I’ve ever heard. It’s excrementabulous.
Nolan Ryan used to be the poster boy (man?) of “Athletes Through with Chew” when he was pitching for the Rangers. I wonder if he tries to influence the players in that regard today?
Aren’t we being a little bit picky? Truth be known, ball players chew and scratch their crotch. Some things are better left looking the other way. This is one of those times.
Economic problems. $15 trillion national debt. High unemployment. Terrorism. Eric Celeste moving away.
And you are worried about grown men chewing tobacco?
Your life must be pretty good if this is something you worry about.
@MCC: That was no typo. Clawntler was an intentional blending of claw and antler.
Wait a minute. Dan Koller is a man?
It’s part of baseball tradition, Dan. I’m sure they know the “risks,” so what’s the problem?
I’m more disgusted by all these hospital staff members smoking as I enter hospitals on a daily basis for my job..they may actually be treating you or I or our kids with dirty, smoke hands.
Baseball players have been dipping for years. let em be
Just because baseball players have always done it, whether they know the risks or not, it’s OK to publicly disdain the practice and hope it changes. Ditto for the strange, antiquated code of throwing at opposing batters. Football players have always knocked each other unconscious on the field and everyone celebrated. But now that we’re learning what concussions do, that’s slowly changing.
Seriously?
Jesus.
Trey brings up a good point.
Since you obviously watch a lot of games, you probably know that they retired the claw and the antlers around the All-Star break for the ‘cobra’ and ‘in it together’ hand gestures. Claw and Antlers are so 2010.
Koller, You are such a girl!!!
“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
-H. L. Mencken
@Brian: I’ve never seen a definitive explanation of those new hand gestures.
@Glenn: I cede my time to the eloquent Mr. Mooney.
No one’s being puritanical by bringing up this bizarre habit. Traditional or not, we now know that bulge in baseball players’ mouths is a slow, nasty route to tongue cancer: http://www.entusa.com/oral_photographs/20071112-oral-cancer_small1.jpg. It’s a relevant topic, since we’re pretty much forced to watch “grown men” play tonsil hockey with themselves if we want to watch them play their sport. It’s not as if they’re only doing it in their off-hours.
so sayss the mag that prints the “F” word huh. Niether really bothers me, but I truly prefer to watch sybil cram other things in me
What about the children?! Won’t somebody please think of the children!?
Maybe the tobacco chewers should visit with Cleveland Brown’s old coach, Charles McFall, about the dangers of dipping.
Otherwise, every player is free to destroy his own face. Been a baseball tradition for more than a century.
Maybe people should mind their own business. How about that?
If we are really going to make an issue out of this, then we need to do the following:
- Put more clothes on football cheerleaders. No need to present them as sexual fodder.
- Stop baseball managers from arguing with umpires. It teaches kids its OK to question authority.
- Greatly limit the amount of $$ an athlete can make. The current system promotes greed.
- No beer advertising during televised sporting events. It promotes alcoholism.
- No fast food advertising during televised sporting events. It promotes obesity.
Chewing tobacco for some, miniature American flags for others?
Dan, you are such the “debbie downer” of the winning feeling happening around the Rangers right now. Your timing is terrible. If you are so put off, turn away or don’t watch at all and listen to the radio. Rangers radio broadcast is outstanding.
I (heart) Trey. Well, actually more of a man crush.
Soccer moms unite!! We CAN protect our children, first and foremost, by getting this off of the networks we watch these games on.
Yesterday, I took matters into my own hands at Fox4 up the street. I asked to see a manager. Of course, he’s seen me in his station a million times. He’s seen me protect my young children from obscenities, work to ban Family Guy from their network, and squeal in delight when given notice that they implemented a 10 second delay. That manager completely understood my simple request. I asked him to help me protect these my little rascals, by removing the scenes of players using chewing tobacco in this year’s World Series. I backed my request by reminding him that Fox4 is a neighborhood establishment frequently watched by moms, and that such nastiness is offensive and inappropriate. He agreed that our children should not be exposed, agreed to removed all the scenes, and apologized for not doing it sooner. Go, Fox4!
I felt EMPOWERED, so much so, that I went to several other stoations [and called ESPN] and asked the same from each manager. Each complied, without even blinking. Please do the same with any staion you watch that shows MLB. It was so easy, … We do not have to watch networks willing to degrade our integrity!!!
you just lost a listener
I think if you reread his post he thinks guys with a mouth full of crap dripping out look disgusting. Nothing about kids, cheerleaders, puritanism, political correctness etc. He doesn’t even say they should stop.
I, for one, would leap up and cheer if the boys of summer eschewed the chaw and discreetly took up the obscure, non-carcinogenic botanical banisteriopsis caapi.
Oops, sorry there Nellie, I almost forgot to mention it’s pychoactive. Oh, nothing much — just a little copious amounts of harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine, all of which are both beta-carboline harmala alkaloids and monoamine oxidase inhibitors.
Oh, you will know what they are.
What gives, big boy? Looks like you’re struggling to find space for a second brain. Play ball!
I don’t see how being put off by big lumps of chew is the same as “getting into other people’s business.” And I say that as someone who enjoys the occasional dip. If I dip and people are put off by it then, well, I don’t blame them. It ain’t a pretty habit.
To answer your question, Dan:
No.
My great-grandmother was a dipper. During my childhood, I thought she had a disease that caused her to spit brown. All the kids winced when told to kiss her goodbye after a visit. It was nasty. I only learned why she did that when I reached high school because my then-boyfriend went through a “skoal” phase in the late 80s. Pretty sure he quit after high school. It’s a nasty, old-timey, unprofessional, disgusting, deadly habit.
So, outside of Baseball and Rodeo, where else is it deemed “acceptable”? Not asking for legislation here, because aside from those two sports, it’s generally attributed to really old and/or unprofessional people, right? I can’t imagine anyone now watching the Rangers on TV going “Yes! I can look like I was born in the 1800s! Brown Spit looks so tasty!”
Hey Helen here is a great idea, dont let your children watch TV. Its a lot healthier to have them out in the yard playing those games than it is to have them sitting on the couch eating hot dogs and mac n cheese with a coke next to em. Seriously if it bothers you that much turn it of. there truly is nothing educational on Fox 4 or any local for that matter, anymore.
Seeing someone Dip is sooo disgusting and the thought of it just makes me want to vomit. But, watching someone spit out some gnawed up and saliva soaked sunflower seeds makes me really hungry.
@Helen – BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahaha.
The Onion would be proud.