European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 08, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday april 8, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 25 ban on tobacco dips into heresy by John Eisenberg the Baltimore Sun the people who run baseball Are toying with the idea of outlawing chewing tobacco. It is one of those politically Correct conceits that wont survive and  anyway. It will be tested this year in a couple of Low minor leagues but the implication is Clear. The people who run baseball want to see How it goes if there is an outcry if the lawyers show up. What they done to understand of course is that the 18-year-Olds in the Low minors Are too terrified to dispute anything. Their lives Are 12-hour bus rides Mush for dinner and dirty water of the clubhouse floor but they know better than to Gripe if they want their careers extended beyond the next Dawn. Major leagues meanwhile Start screaming about unfair labor practices if the Post game Buffet is Low on shrimp. If the people who run baseball actually tried to ban chewing tobacco in the majors player representative Donald Fehr would be filing briefs within the hour and phoning reporters with a 45-minute Harangue of swag Martian fire about personal freedoms and what life was like behind the Iron curtain. It la never happen. The real Surprise is that baseball is even trying this out. It smacks of one of those nil Nik behaviour control dictum. If i close my eyes i can almost hear National football commentary league by missioner Paul tag liable explaining in his drone that this is in the players Best interests and anyone who violates the Law will be fined suspended and forced to listen to tapes of Bill Walsh talking run pass theory. Lets get to the nut of the Issue Here. The principle is All wrong. Baseball without chewing tobacco would not be the baseball we know. They might As Well Start using Day Glo balls. To begin with the players might have to learn to speak in Complete sentences a Radical concept. As it stands now most of my clubhouse conversations run along these lines me a is Lugo did you have your High Heater humming a slug go a Well offt threw the  spews Brown liquid into cup. / a poet or maybe it was an oped writer once said that conversation was the thread that joined baseball a Days. The truth is that Haz arding a guess about the conversation you just had is the thread that joins baseball a Days. No dialogue is Complete without a tobacco related fill in the Blank. If Nixon a a Richard not Donnell had been a manager instead of a president no one would have wondered about those Cloudy 18 minutes on his tapes. Everyone would have understood that he was just dip Pink. Chewing tobacco is All that 1 remember about Mytirs trip to a major league clubhouse. I was 20 a student intern. Don Zimmer was sitting in the manager s office. This is a Man who Chews such a prodigious plug that it appears he has a can of soda lodged in his jaw. He was leaning Back in his chair scratching his perfectly round belly. A couple of report cars were asking him questions. Question a Zim who a starting thursday night a Zim a a probably Al Fez or  a a a a a a a a a a a. A. A. A i watched incredulous As the reporters wrote something Down question a Are you satisfied with Billy Bob right now a Zim spews Brown liquid  spews More Brown liquid again the reporters nodded and wrote dazed and a Little discouraged i returned to the office and asked my editor if perhaps there was a great secret of hardball life to which i was not privileged. I try to imagine the game without chewing tobacco and i can to summon it. Zim still has a jobs my goodness the Man would seem positively naked without that Peninsula growing out of the Side of his Mouth. Batting practice would be soundless and depressing without the constant hawking robbing and puff sting. Dugout floors just  be dugout floors without those at every Stop Don Zimmer sports baseball s trademark bulge. State of Mainc shaped stains that stick to your shoes in the july heat. Some players might just dry up and disappear As the wicked Witch did. Len Dykstra Chews a gob the size of a softball drools juice Down the front of his shirt and smokes cigarettes at the same time. He just revels in the Slop. Take his tobacco away and his average would drop a Hundred Points. The politically Correct stand of course would be to applaud baseball for crusading against tobacco. Chewing tobacco is dangerous. It can cause cancer. The players would indeed be better off it were banned. We All know that. But As Fehr would say and say again its a free country. And one of the beauties of baseball is its  is corporate controlled. A baseball clubhouse Isnit exactly Art american civil liberties Union office but players arc More free to do and say what they want. Violating that spirit would be wrong. Yes the players would be better off if they weren to allowed to Chew. But As the old saying goes a pm Rufft Golf a Rob Hui  Rolls in Australia Sydney Australia up americans reigning world Champion Wayne Rainey Rode a perfect race sunday to capture his first australian 5q0cc motorcycle grand prix. Riding his Kenny Roberts aha a from the pole position Rainey blazed around 32 laps of the 2.42-mile Eastern Creek circuit outside Sydney in 49 minutes 14.41f-Sec-onds to win ahead of australian Michael Doohan rothmans honda49.16.960. Rainey a teammate John Kocinski was third in 49 23,860. Australian Wayne Gardner who won the event for the second time last year was fourth on a Roth mans Honda with american Kevin Schwantz Lucky strike Suzuki next. Americans four time world Champion Eddie Lawson Caliva placed a creditable sixth. Local hero Doohan came from ninth after blowing the Start due to a stiff clutch to Cut the american team out of a one two finish. Kocinski the 22 year old reigning world 250cc Champion Riding in his first season in 500cc, tried hard to hold off the More experienced Doohan but Vas overtaken eight laps from the end. Jarrett rides wrecks to Victory Lane . A Dale Jarrett took advantage of two late wrecks and won the Pontiac pacesetters 200 grand National under caution flags at Darlington raceway on saturday. Jarrett was second to Terry a Labonte for 44 laps until he took the Lead 14 laps from the end. He passed Labonte going into turn one As a caution slow Down began. The yellow Flag was waved when David Green spun in the Back of the Field on a restart after an earlier caution. Two laps Latef when the Green Flag waved Jarrett got a Quick Start and pulled about a dozen car lengths ahead of Labonte but Labonte looking for his first grand National Victory Cut the Gap to about two car lengths with seven laps left. Just when the race seemed headed for a stirring finish Rookie Clifford Allison and de Berrier slammed into the Wall in turns one and two bringing out out a caution Flag on Lap 144, allowing Jarrett to coast to his seventh grand National Victory. A Jarrett driving a Pontiac won $17,875. He averaged 115.551 mph in winning on a sunny afternoon at the oldest super Speedway on the Lascar circuit. Labonte finished second in an Olds Mobile for the second straight year. A year ago Labonte was leading when he hit the Wall with just three laps left allowing Harry Gant to win. Gant who had won four of the last seven grand National races at Darlington managed to run just 18 laps before engine problems forced him out saturday. Gant finished last in the 40-car Field. Dale Earnhardt was third in a Chevrolet after starting last followed by Phil Parsons who started 34th in a Olds Mobile. Rookie Todd Bodine was fifth in a Buick. Polc Sitter Jimmy Hensley was sixth followed by Joe Nemechek Jeff Burton Jeff Gordon and Tom Peck. Michael Waltrip dominated Early passing Hensley on the opening Lap and leading for the first 52 turns around the 1.366-mile Oval. But an ignition problem ended Waltrip a Hopes and allowed Jarrett to inherit the Lead. Jarrett was up front for the next 32 laps before the leaders had to pit. When the Field sorted itself out Labonte had the Lead. He led for 44 of the next 55 laps until Jarrett reclaimed the Lead on Lap 134. Jarrett Labonte and Waltrip combined to Lead for All but 11 laps of the race. There were seven cautions for a total of 32 laps. The worst came when Ward Burton spun in turn two involving seven other cars. No one was seriously injured in any of the wrecks. A Taylor sets Mark in Miami qualifying Miami apr Wayne Taylor driving a Chevrolet intrepid prototype sports car shattered the track qualifying record in winning the pole position for sunday s Nissan grand prix of Miami Taylor who was born in South Africa and lives in England toured the 1.873-mile, 11-turn downtown Street circuit at 98.658 mph saturday breaking Geoff Brabham a year old Mark of 97.215. A the australian born Brabham two year defending Champion was unable to win an unprecedented fifth straight Miami pole lie put his Nissan Npt-90 in fifth place with a Lap of 97.010. A i think the Nissan team set the Stan a Dard in this series a Brabham said. A and it took a lot of the teams a Long time to see where the goalposts have been set so to speak. Now the jaguars the Toyota and the new Chevy teams Are showing that their work is starting to pay off in a big  joining Taylor on the front Row for sundays two hour sprint was West Palm Beach race Winner Davy Jones whose Jaguar xjr-10 turned a Lap of 98.141. The second Row was to include his Jaguar teammate Raul Boesel of Brazil whose Best Lap was 98.010, and Taylor a teammate Tommy Kendall driving a Chevrolet Miller at 97.862. The race has been shortened this year from three hours to two hours making it a True sprint race with just one pit Stop needed by most of the cars. /