Tampa Bay Rays Show Winning Ways
February 22, 2011
The Tampa Bay Rays will have to play the 2011 season to see if they're winners on the field again — but they're already champions in the growing movement to get smokeless tobacco out of Major League Baseball.
The 2010 American League East division winners took time out from spring training to talk to the Fox News affiliate in Tampa about their distaste for the widespread use of smokeless tobacco in Major League Baseball, and the desire of many on the team and among its fans to see baseball go tobacco-free.
Check it out:
Rays support smokeless tobacco ban: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com
Meanwhile, calls in the media for tobacco-free baseball grew louder as editorials in the San Diego Union Tribune and the Philadelphia Inquirer both called on Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association to agree to the ban. The San Diego Union Tribune is the hometown paper of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, whose disclosure that he suffers from cancer that he blames on a lifetime of chewing tobacco drew public attention to the deadly consequences of smokeless use.
Over at MLB.com, reporter and columnist Anthony Castrovince adds his voice to those who say it's time for baseball to step up to the plate and take on this critical health issue.
Later this week, we'll have updates on our campaign to Knock Tobacco Out of the Park — and give you ways to help make it happen!