Thumbs up: Strike three for smokeless tobacco

Tony Gwynn’s death from salivary gland cancer in 2014 made national headlines. And why not? Gwynn was a Hall of Fame baseball player, the popular coach at San Diego State University and, occasionally, a TV commentator. Gwynn also was a heavy user of chewing tobacco. Sonoma County’s baseball community suffered its own tragic loss 18 years earlier when Bob Leslie, the head baseball coach at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, died of lip cancer at age 32.

While fighting the disease, Leslie had teamed with former major leaguer Joe Garagiola in trying to educate young players about the dangers of smokeless tobacco. Success was slow coming. Many high school programs around the country began discouraging and eventually prohibiting the use of chewing tobacco. So did the professional minor leagues. Beginning last year, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, among other cities, banned smokeless tobacco from their pro sports stadiums. Finally, under a new collective bargaining agreement between major league owners and big league players, it won’t be allowed in any major league ballparks beginning this season. Thumbs up.