Mayor of San Francisco Signs an Ordinance to Ban Smokeless Tobacco from all Public Athletic Fields. ( NY Times)
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A New York Times article reported that, the popular baseball habit of “dipping” smokeless tobacco on athletic fields would soon be against the law. Players like Giants pitcher, Madison Bumgarner who can be seen with a clump of smokeless tobacco lodged in his lower lip most days when he is at work at the AT&T Park in San Francisco will have to break the habit at least on his home stadium.
Signaling a profound shift in the culture of baseball, Mayor Edwin M. Lee of San Francisco signed an ordinance in May that banned smokeless tobacco from all public athletic fields in the city, including AT&T Park, starting on Jan. 1, 2016.
The move was pushed by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a nonprofit group that approached San Francisco lawmakers as the first step in a plan to eventually rid Major League Baseball of smokeless tobacco.
Matthew Myers, the president of the organization, said he expected at least six more cities with major league teams to pass similar legislation by the end of the year. A Los Angeles city councilman has proposed a similar motion. Myers plans to approach more cities until the entire league is accounted for.