Josh Hamilton Quits Chewing Tobacco

The familiar circular imprint in Josh Hamilton's back pocket is gone.

Hamilton, who has successfully waged a holy war against crack, cocaine and alcohol since October 2005, has quit using smokeless tobacco.

"I started doing it when I started doing everything else," Hamilton said the other day.

Hamilton knew he'd eventually quit when his daughter Julia, 7, started regularly asking him to do it about a year ago.

"You know it's bad when your 3-year-old holds up a water bottle, and asks if daddy spit in this before she drinks out of it," said Hamilton, referring to his daughter Sierra. "That's when you know it's a problem." (more here)

Christ, this guy is amazing. Let's look at his timeline:

High School - National Baseball Player of the Year
College - Fuck college. Too good at baseball.
MLB draft - 1st pick in 1999
Minor Leagues - Tearing it up
Minor Leagues continued - Finds out what crack and cocaine are.
Next few years - Likes crack and cocaine alot. No more baseball.
Fast forward to 2006 - Selected in the ever-obscure Rule 5 draft and ends up in Cincy, quits crack, cocaine, weed, alcohol, and whatever else he did
Cincinnati Reds in 2007 - becomes a badass rookie and hits 19 home runs (still no drugs)
Texas Rangers in 2008 - hits .304 with 32 dingers and 130 RBI. Destroys home run derby record and is an All-Star starter. Redonkulious.
This week - quits dip.

If this guy can quit coke, crack, weed, alcohol, pills, and dip, then I hope I can keep on the no-chew wagon.

On a side note, I really hope this guy never did steroids. He is too good of a story.

Shell Shocked

http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=290520120

Eat it Heels!

Wyoming will tax your ass

CHEYENNE -- Amid some ruffled feathers and hurt feelings, the Senate Wednesday passed a bill on final reading that would overhaul the state tax on moist smokeless chewing tobacco.

House Bill 67 would impose a weight-based tax on moist chewing tobacco -- also known as "dip" -- instead of the current "ad valorem" tax based on purchase price.

The result would be a tax of 60 cents per ounce on moist tobacco products, instead of the current 20 percent tax on product price. In simple terms, that means the tax on a 1-ounce can of dip priced at $1 would rise from 20 cents to 60 cents, while the tax on a $3 can of equal weight would remain at about 60 cents. more

How much can a tin really cost in Wyoming anyways? A buck? I know in West Virgina, they were basically giving it away to people. Granted it was not Skoal, but it still served its purpose. It really wouldn't matter up here in New England since Skoal is eight bucks in some places....

Chewing tobacco bad for your record as well

"As it happens, police had been trailing a man, 28-year-old Anthony Curcio, for some time. Without his knowledge, they snagged a sample of his DNA from a container he’d been using as a spittoon for his chewing tobacco. The DNA matched the sample from the discarded mask, and police arrested Curcio last week in a department-store parking lot. He is now in custody in Snohomish County, Wash." Read the rest

Crazy shit. Some guy robs a bank and gets nabbed because of a renegade spitter! I wonder if it was a Poland Springs bottle? That truly sucks for him. I wonder if he'll quit.

I had this crazy dream one time that I knocked over a spitter on my desk at work and it somehow was this never ending flood, covering my desk and floor totally in sludge. Like a budget scary movie.

Thirty eight days in the books - chew free.

One Month Down, A Lifetime To Go

Amid my drone-like week, I failed to recognize that February 11th represented a full month without dip. That is pretty much the longest, by far, that I have gone without a dip for at least a couple of years.

Read this: http://www.elmendorf.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123134916

Kind of funny how they use images of children to make you feel guilty. Pretty sure that would never work on me from a tobacco perspective, but I'm sure it does the trick on some people. For those who like interactive features, it may be useful for quitting. Pretty sure the DOD could make better use of their time though.

For those of you with out V-day honeys, best of luck scavenging the bars tonight to find that special someone. Be sure your beer goggles aren't too thick.

Philip Morris Int'l to enter smokeless market

Philip Morris International, which sells Marlboro cigarettes outside the U.S., said Tuesday it plans to bring smokeless tobacco products to markets around the world through a new joint venture.

This is scary.

What if chew was as rampantly advertised and used as cigarettes? This would mean that it was finally deemed socially acceptable. If it was socially acceptable, then our general notion of good hygiene would be diminished. If we had bad hygiene, then we would be British. If we were British, then our American democracy would cease to exist. If we had no democracy, then we would also be Russian. If we were Russian, then we would be very respectable gymnasts.

So what does this all mean? Well, I am not sure, but it certainly is not an improvement to our current society.

In other news, I have been on a hot betting streak today. I don't bet regularly, but once in a while it is acceptable. I had about 35 bucks when I woke up and after a series of college basketball wins, I was up to about 180. Should have stopped there. But no, what do I do? I bet on Boise St/Fresno St basketball. First of all, I know nothing about these two teams. All I know is that Fresno has one conference win and scored 10 points in the first half last game. The line? Boise St (2nd in WAC) by one. As I sang and proclaimed "Free Money!!!", I put all 180 on the game. Even better is that I found a webcast of the game. Everything was cool until Fresno ran out to a 14 point lead in the first nine minutes and putting on a dunking clinic. WTF?!

Til next time.

Dreams

I had a dream last night in the following sequence:

1. I woke up at 6 am and decided to get a "few more minutes of sleep"
2. I then woke up at 10:15 am and realized I was two hours late to work
3. I jumped on a conference call we were to have and sounded like Buffalo Bill
4. I freaked out and hung up and ran to work
5. I got to work at 11:26 (somehow it took an hour to walk 12 minutes)
6. A bunch of people came to my desk and bombarded me right away, further freaking me out
7. A tin of Skoal appeared on my desk, begging me to have a dip and return to normalcy.
8. I let out a battle cry that would have made Braveheart proud and spiked it into the trash can

Two things of note:
1. I need a vacation.
2. Even my subconscious has quit dipping. Boo ya!

Addiction Omission

This is weird. I don't have any urge to chew at all. Not even a little bit. This is probably one of the most stressful month's I have ever endured and I have not wanted to even touch it. That last post was BS because if I really wanted one then it would have been a much worse reaction than that I am sure.

Maybe something is wrong that I have no urge; hopefully I am not dying. I doubt that is the case. It really might just be that I am so mentally and physically worn out, that I don't have the energy to feel withdrawn. Good and bad?

On another note, I may as well talk about other topics here. Regurgitating the same stuff about dipping is due to get old and soon.

How about Michael Phelps? The guy gets caught taking bong hits and there really isn't much of a reaction. I am against the notion that a professional athlete should be a role model. Yes, they should be morally acceptable in their decisions, but they don't have to be saints. Put it this way - dope or no dope, I am sure Michael Phelps is still a good guy who would bend over backwards to help someone. So what if he got stoned? If it were a hard drug, then yes my opinion might be slightly altered. I guess that is the difference in the public eye; the fine line is even finer the bigger you are. Believe me, I'll take a pothead who trained his ass off, completed a sports miracle, and met lofty goals any day. Boo Yah!