I’m not a smoker, and I’ve never felt the need to use any tobacco product. Despite this, I’m a strong proponent of letting legal adults make their own decisions as long as their actions don’t directly harm others — which is exactly why Major League Baseball’s latest labor agreement has me shaking my head in bemusement.
Baseball fans ought to be cheered that the game won’t be staring down the barrel of a possible labor stoppage anytime soon. But what’s bothering me is that the union that represents the players caved in so easily to outside pressure groups who want to see smokeless tobacco banned from Major League Baseball forever. Here’s ESPN’s Paul Lukas on a small provision that was inserted into the labor agreement:
One of the unique visual aspects of baseball is the sight of a circular outline in a player’s back pocket. That outline is, of course, a tin of chewing tobacco. But the new labor agreement prohibits players from carrying tobacco products in their uniforms — on balance, a good thing, but it means we’ll no longer see this little visual signifier. A pity.
Excuse me, but the real pity is that the Major League Baseball Players Association so casually bargained away the rights of its own members to run their lives as they see fit. Look, nobody needs to convince me about the potential dangers of using tobacco. I made the decision long ago that it wasn’t for me. But that doesn’t mean I have the right to make that decision for other adults.
And while the labor agreement doesn’t ban the use of smokeless tobacco outright — players in the minors who aren’t represented by a union have been banned from using it during games since 1993 — that is exactly where the game is headed. In the meantime, you’ll excuse me if I refrain from celebrating as grown men have another small freedom taken from them.
Eric McErlain blogs at Off Wing Opinion, a Forbes “Best of the Web” winner. In 2006 he wrote a “bloggers bill of rights” to help integrate bloggers into the Washington Capitals’ press box. Eric has also written for Deadspin, NBC Sports and the Sporting News, and covers sports television for The TV News. Follow Eric on Twitter.