using chewing tobacco on the field

[greymule]

Francona wraps his chew in bubble gum.

Former Yankee pitcher Steve Hamilton used to do that, too. I once saw him accidently swallow the whole glob and have to leave the game.

Strange and small world. At a summer picnic, during a general discussion on baseball, I related that story to a woman who then informed me that she had dated Steve Hamilton in high school and had remained good friends with him until he died in 1997 (of cancer, two days after his 62nd birthday). As the conversation continued, the woman told me that she had recently lost her son, who had been killed when he fell off his motorcycle while parking it.