I save my professional athlete outrage for their astronomical salaries and high ticket prices.

I agree with that to. Is anyone really worth that kind of money.

Well, yes. People who make really high salaries do so because they bring in a lot of money to their organizations. Athletes, actors, CEO's at the high level are bringing a lot of money or they wouldn't get paid what they do.

That has nothing to do with their value as a human being but rather their talent/profession happens to be lucrative. How many of us have gone to see a movie based solely on an actor/actress that we like? Or gone to a game to see a player or team that we like? I know I have, and all that money spent is calculated next time it's time for salary negotiations.

I have also seen what the dugouts look like after a game. What a trashed mess!
You don't see pro basketball or soccer or tennis players doing any of that stuff!

What you say is true, but the tradition of spitting chaw dates back way before baseball players made any real money. In the early pro days they sold insurance or cars or whatnot during the off season so they could afford to play ball. Nowadays, most are off tobacco and are spitting sunflower seed shells. I've heard it helps keep them focused. Many chew gum instead, as well. I'm not saying any of it is pretty, but baseball culture is well over a hundred years old, so just getting them to switch to seeds, which are as healthy, generally, as tobacco is harmful, was a major achievement.

Ballerinas spit and blow their noses backstage. Ballet takes as much or more athletic skill and training as baseball, so if you want a more refined spectator experience maybe Swan Lake?

It isn't as if they haven't been working at it. As with most efforts, it takes time and tends to happen in pieces. They have banned it in minor league contracts, and there has been a strong push for it to be negotiated in the next major league talks. I think that is in 2016, but I am not certain of the timetable. It is coming.

Spitting in public is disgusting whether it is ballplayers, grandma rose, a statesman, a grocer, or a candlestick maker! It is gross, unsanitary, and rude!! Period!!

I personally don't care for or watch baseball, but we did have a guest that was a softball player from another region of the country. I had to restrain myself (as well as my right hand 'cause I so wanted to slap him hard upside the head) the first time he spit his wad of chewing tobacco off our deck into my flower beds. I didn't say anything for that whole weekend. I think I bit a hole in my tongue.

OK, I admit I smoke cigarettes. But I will not light up unless I'm absolutely 127.9% positive the people/places I'm around don't have a problem with it. And I sure dispose of my butts, etc. cleanly and discreetly. I don't understand the "I can spit wherever I want to" mentality.

Spitting is disgusting and gross.

Yes, indeed, spitting is disgusting and gross. I've always been appalled while travelling in foreign countries, that they have to post signs in the buses forbidding spitting. That's just spitting spit! Like people would. And they must, or there wouldn't be the signs.

Gyr Falcon, I thought they were just getting rid of chaw, not seeds.

I agree about spitting being gross! It makes me gag!

I'm not a baseball follower, but to me, both smoking and spitting are equally disgusting. As between the two, at least spitting doesn't cause irreparable damage to the health of the spitter and those around them.

Pro atheletes in all sports are paid for their physical ability, not for their brains. If those who enjoy success as such had to rely on their brains for their livelihood, many would do no better than to trod the stairs selling peanuts at the events they're featured at.

plllog, my post was referring to the original post topic. I was not talking about sunflower seeds.

Yeah, but they still spit the shells, though they're not as ugly as tobacco spit.

Snidely, agreed that unless you get the foul stuff on you, tobacco spit isn't harmful to bystanders, but that wad of chaw can cause mouth cancer, tongue cancer, esophageal cancer, and I read somewhere pancreatic cancer. It can destroy gums and teeth, and thereby affect the heart and allow bacteria into the bloodstream.

Agree - gross, disgusting, unsanitary, and rude.

Years ago when walking with a friend we passed a group of teens. One of they hawked and spit onto the sidewalk. I will always remember my friend saying to him "If you were my son I'd make you lick it up". (Not sure which would have grossed me out more.)