A Sporting View: As American as apple pie?

I remember all too well the first time I tried chewing tobacco.

My college baseball team was at a road game in the middle of Delaware in the middle of summer. We were getting destroyed by an unknown college, making the ham-and-egger on the mound look like Nolan Ryan, and with the score something like 17-0, I decided to try some chewing tobacco at the encouragement of our derelict first baseman.

At first, I kind of liked the taste … there was a certain molasses-type sweetness to it. I chewed it a bit in the on-base circle, watching the pitcher, and when it became my turn to hit, I felt real confident. In fact, I practically floated to the plate. The bat felt light, and I was suddenly alert. I felt great!

The first pitch came to the plate and I was hacking away, fouling one down the line.

And that’s when I realized the tobacco wasn’t such a wonder drug after all.

The euphoria was gone. My extremities were tingling, and my stomach was starting to churn. I felt a head rush and a cold sweat began to build. The next pitch floated by for a strike, and I couldn’t even lift the bat.

I was rapidly turning green.

The next pitch sailed outside as I stood there wobbling. I couldn’t even see the ball — it looked like a dot, swimming in a sea of little dots (those are called “phosphenes,” I would later learn). Another pitch sailed outside, and I buckled over. In the dugout, I could see the first baseman yelling very slowly to “spit … it … out!”

I opened my mouth and let the largest spitwad of tobacco juice ever unleashed fall smack-dab in between the opposing team’s catcher’s crouched legs. It literally splashed up, and completely freaked the guy out, who cursed me out loud. After being ordered to play ball, much to my dismay, I was issued a walk. As I ran down the line like Jerry Lewis on the “Colgate Comedy Hour,” I promised to never chew tobacco again.

Today, more than 30 percent of Major League Baseball players and close to 50 percent of minor leaguers chew tobacco — even though it’s known to cause cancer and contains more than 28 carcinogens. This season, Boston manager Terry Francona will attempt to do what I did all those years ago and kick the habit. If he fails to do so, he has agreed to pay $20,000 to a cancer charity.

To make such a commitment … well, some would say chewing tobacco is “as American as baseball and apple pie.” But let’s be honest, when was the last time you saw someone eating a pie on the on-deck circle?