Interesting stuff...I felt this was Marlins-related enough to be here.

 

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellit...aseball!&s=

 

Every morning before his spring-training workouts, pitcher Scott Olsen of the Florida Marlins wakes up and reaches for his pack of Parliaments.

 

"First thing in the morning, I have one," he said. "Some guys drink coffee. I smoke a cigarette."

 

Olsen said he smokes about six cigarettes a day, down from the pack-a-day habit that started when he was an All-America high school star who quickly advanced through the Marlins' minor-league system.

 

Now Olsen, a 22-year-old left-hander, has two goals to reach by the end of camp - win a spot on the Marlins roster and quit smoking.

 

"It's never bothered me," Olsen said of his smoking. "It's never affected my running. It's never affected how late I can go into the game. Then again, I'm still 22. So in 10 years it probably would affect my running and throwing, so I'd just like to knock it out now."

 

By national standards, Olsen isn't a chronic smoker. But in an era in which athletes take great pains to take care of their bodies so they can sign six- and seven-figure contracts, his habit sticks out like a beer belly.

 

"Here you have guys trying to get in tiptop shape. You just don't connect cigarettes and athletes together," said pitcher Brian Moehler of the Marlins, a nonsmoker. "You just don't see an athlete being a smoker. It's shocking when you do."

 

Once upon a time in baseball, cigarettes were as common in clubhouses as bats and gloves.

 

Today, despite efforts to educate players about the dangers of tobacco, they are more likely to chew it than they are to smoke it.

 

"There are a lot of guys who dip and when you see someone dipping on a baseball field, you just don't think anything of it," Moehler said. "But (smoking) is the same thing."

 

Exactly how many major-leaguers smoke and how often they light up isn't known. But the most recent study on smokeless tobacco use among baseball players offers a glimpse into their smoking habits.

 

A team of researchers dispatched to major-league spring training clubhouses from 1998 to 2003 found that about 36 percent of the players dipped Skoal, Copenhagen and other smokeless tobaccos at least once a week over those six years.

 

Players also were asked if they had smoked cigarettes or cigars at least once a month. In 1998, 312 players said they'd smoked, about 14.4 percent of the respondents, compared to 136 players.

 

I hope that never catches up to him.

I don't get why dipping is allowed in baseball. I never got that.

I don't understand how Moehler could say, for an athlete, that dipping and smoking are the same thing. Smoking ruins your lungs and gives you cancer, dipping just gives you cancer.

Dipping also influences your senses and reaction time, am I wrong?

Dipping also influences your senses and reaction time, am I wrong?

 

 

Oh no, you're right. I've tried dipping in high-school and college while playing and I couldn't do it. You're just buzzing out there.

who cares ... its their choice, they know its bad for them

who cares ... its their choice, they know its bad for them

 

 

So you'd have no problem with Miguel Cabrera having that second dessert or going on a pizza diet?

 

Same concept...if it's bad for the body, it's bad for the athlete, and if it's bad for the athlete, it's bad for the team.

 

Hell, you could even relate this to illegal drugs or steroids. It's their choice to use them even though it's bad, so should we care?

who cares ... its their choice, they know its bad for them

 

 

So you'd have no problem with Miguel Cabrera having that second dessert or going on a pizza diet?

 

Same concept...if it's bad for the body, it's bad for the athlete, and if it's bad for the athlete, it's bad for the team.

 

Hell, you could even relate this to illegal drugs or steroids. It's their choice to use them even though it's bad, so should we care?

 

as long as it doesnt affect their performance I dont mind ... when it does its a different thing

who cares ... its their choice, they know its bad for them

 

 

So you'd have no problem with Miguel Cabrera having that second dessert or going on a pizza diet?

 

Same concept...if it's bad for the body, it's bad for the athlete, and if it's bad for the athlete, it's bad for the team.

 

Hell, you could even relate this to illegal drugs or steroids. It's their choice to use them even though it's bad, so should we care?

 

as long as it doesnt affect their performance I dont mind ... when it does its a different thing

 

Anything that's "bad" for you will affect your performance.

 

Smoking kills your lung capacity for oxygen, meaning you get winded faster and don't have as much stamina.

 

Dipping affects reaction time.

 

Any form of illegal drug, especially an addiction, f***s you six ways to sunday.

 

Any unhealthy diet leaves a body in a condition not prepared to perform at the level expected of professional athletes.

 

Heck, by your standard, the only thing acceptable is steroid use since it has a positive affect on performance.

Smoking kills your lung capacity for oxygen, meaning you get winded faster and don't have as much stamina.

 

 

 

Mark Grace had a fine career smoking two packs a day

 

 

Heck, by your standard, the only thing acceptable is steroid use since it has a positive affect on performance.

 

 

and we can be a little more reasonable here

 

 

all im saying is that its a players choice ... if they feel like having a couple of cigarettes a day let them at it, its their choice im not going as to use steroids or illegal drugs. A few smokes wont kill or harm anyone as long as its in a concious amount ... its abusing it that makes it wrong

who cares ... its their choice, they know its bad for them

 

 

So you'd have no problem with Miguel Cabrera having that second dessert or going on a pizza diet?

 

Same concept...if it's bad for the body, it's bad for the athlete, and if it's bad for the athlete, it's bad for the team.

 

Hell, you could even relate this to illegal drugs or steroids. It's their choice to use them even though it's bad, so should we care?

 

as long as it doesnt affect their performance I dont mind ... when it does its a different thing

 

Anything that's "bad" for you will affect your performance.

 

Smoking kills your lung capacity for oxygen, meaning you get winded faster and don't have as much stamina.

 

Dipping affects reaction time.

 

Any form of illegal drug, especially an addiction, f***s you six ways to sunday.

 

Any unhealthy diet leaves a body in a condition not prepared to perform at the level expected of professional athletes.

 

Heck, by your standard, the only thing acceptable is steroid use since it has a positive affect on performance.

Just added a new quote to my sig.

Smoking kills your lung capacity for oxygen, meaning you get winded faster and don't have as much stamina.

 

 

 

Mark Grace had a fine career smoking two packs a day

 

 

Heck, by your standard, the only thing acceptable is steroid use since it has a positive affect on performance.

 

 

and we can be a little more reasonable here

 

 

all im saying is that its a players choice ... if they feel like having a couple of cigarettes a day let them at it, its their choice im not going as to use steroids or illegal drugs. A few smokes wont kill or harm anyone as long as its in a concious amount ... its abusing it that makes it wrong

 

I'm not saying that players don't have a right to smoke, but I sure as heck don't want to see it.

 

Do I realize that they will? Of course. I know enough people who have seen professional athletes out at clubs the night before a game/seen them myself to know that half of these guys, especially the superstars, are probably playing hung-over anyway. I'm not going to make a mountain out of a molehill on this, but when someone's 22 and the first thing they need in the morning is the buzz of a cigarette, I'd be concerned.

 

Olsen has too much talent to see smoking catch up with him. By my math, if he keeps smoking, he'd be doing it for 10 years when he hits his typical 'prime' years (27-31)...that's not something to look forward to.

 

 

 

 

 

who cares ... its their choice, they know its bad for them

 

 

So you'd have no problem with Miguel Cabrera having that second dessert or going on a pizza diet?

 

Same concept...if it's bad for the body, it's bad for the athlete, and if it's bad for the athlete, it's bad for the team.

 

Hell, you could even relate this to illegal drugs or steroids. It's their choice to use them even though it's bad, so should we care?

 

as long as it doesnt affect their performance I dont mind ... when it does its a different thing

 

Anything that's "bad" for you will affect your performance.

 

Smoking kills your lung capacity for oxygen, meaning you get winded faster and don't have as much stamina.

 

Dipping affects reaction time.

 

Any form of illegal drug, especially an addiction, f***s you six ways to sunday.

 

Any unhealthy diet leaves a body in a condition not prepared to perform at the level expected of professional athletes.

 

Heck, by your standard, the only thing acceptable is steroid use since it has a positive affect on performance.

Just added a new quote to my sig.

 

:mischief

Can it be that bad? A friend of mine who played in the White Sox organization tells me Charlie Hough used to smoke while on the stationary bike and he pitched until he was 45-46 years old.

Mark Grace was a first baseman. Let's just say you don't need top of the line lungs to play there.

 

Olsen is a starting pitcher. There is a big difference there.

didn't a lot of guys dip last year? noone seemed to mind then

:barf

 

I am glad to hear that he is trying to quit.

Some of you guys think of baseball players like race horses or property let them live thier life as adults.

 

You don't have to be a physical specimen to play baseball as Babe Ruth, a whore-mongering, alchoholic, gluttonous party animal, shows you.

Some of you guys think of baseball players like race horses or property let them live thier life as adults.

 

You don't have to be a physical specimen to play baseball as Babe Ruth, a whore-mongering, alchoholic, gluttonous party animal, shows you.

 

Babe Ruth also died in his early 50s due to throat cancer.

 

The point is, at this point in history, everyone knows tobacco is bad for your health. Yes, he only smokes 6 cigarettes a day, but before the cancer you can start having health problems. My dad only smokes between 4 and 6 a day and for my whole life (so starting when he was 31) he's had a whooping cough come out of nowhere and he gets winded easily. We just don't want to see another human go through that, let alone our future star pitcher.

 

Also, I was completely unaware that dipping slowed your reaction time.