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I am not a huge baseball fan but do watch it occasionally. Does anyone know why baseball players/managers/coaches in particular have to have twelve bubble gums at the time in their mouth? I've never seen any other sport where participants, in one way or the other, have so much chewing gum. How does the bubble gum benefit them? And it looks extremely stupid too!
I came to think about it when I saw Red Sox's manager shoveling in one bubble gum after the other and finally couldn't even fit them all and spit constantly. But I've seen players too having a lot. I know some of them have chewing tobacco and that's totally different. But bubble gum? And pink? I always took that for teenage girls' stuff...
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Sunflower seeds are excellent! I was definitely hooked on those some years ago. But I always did what I saw in Spain for the first time; they bit a little crack in it and then made like a twist and got the seed out and had the shell between their fingers. They never put the entire seed in the mouth like we do here.
I raised the question more as a joke because I was annoyed seeing players with the mouth full of bubble gums! I know it's more of an image than anything else, but I find it pretty immature to have such a need for an image at the age of the players and managers and coaches.
make a heck of a mess spit all over the floor. Funny I never could grow those damn plants around here.
George
There's a lot of jawboning out there on the field. This makes the mouth dry out rather quickly. Gum chewing stimulates saliva. Of course a bagel would do that too but would result in mumbling. 
....used to have a very funny bit about ballplayers and all the spitting and scratching of their private parts.
Chowhound
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