Update 10-16-2025

Chewing Tobacco, Happy Birthday Gavin and Kevin, and Did You Miss?

Chewing Tobacco, Happy Birthday Gavin and Kevin, and Did You Miss?

Adventures with chewing tobacco…Nellie was to blame!

If you grew up playing baseball in the 1950s or 1960s, were you ever tempted to try chewing tobacco? I did. It did not go well, and the failed experiment haunted me for weeks. Future Hall of Famer Jacob Nelson Fox led us astray.

I remember on warm Sunday afternoons, my buds and I in State Hall at what is now the University of Central Arkansas would stroll over to the college baseball field for some “practice.” We called our little workout “taking infield.” No one in the athletic program seemed to mind.

I claimed second base. It seemed to be the best place for a slow guy with a weak arm. In the big leagues, Nellie Fox was the standard for defensive second basemen, so I thought emulating Fox might be a shortcut to some significant improvement.

I assumed the obvious answer to being Nellie Fox was a jaw full of chewing tobacco. So…one afternoon on my way back to school, I bought a plug of something called Bull Durham Chewing Tobacco.

On the way over to the field, I tore off about a third and “Nellie Foxed” it prominently in my jaw. A half hour later, I threw up behind second base. Lesson learned, but not over.

My roommate Bob (college roommate/subscriber), one of the best friends in my life, had a devious soul. He found the unused Bull Durham somewhere and hid it under my mattress. I dreamed of chewing tobacco EVERY night until I found the discarded plug of tobacco weeks later. I have never quite forgiven Bob, but I have never tried chewing tobacco again. Unexpectedly, that failure kept me from being part of an elite group a few years later.

Do you have a chewing tobacco story?

Happy Birthday Gavin Stone (15th) and Kevin McReynolds (16th)

Gavin Stone, Kevin McReynolds

Our guy Gavin Stone turned 27 on the 15th, wearing street clothes and watching his team in the postseason for the second consecutive October. Last year, he was the Dodgers’ best pitcher before a season-ending injury cost him a World Series appearance and all of this season. I love the Gavin Stone story. His biography reminds me of a time about 75 years ago when becoming a big-league star from a town called Lake City, Arkansas, was commonplace. Think Swifton, Viola, Atkins, Lexa, and Havana. Gavin Stone's story, Only in Arkansas, July 8, 2024.

Kevin McReynolds also missed his only chance at a World Series due to an injury. But, compared to Stone’s Cinderella Story, Kevin McReynolds’ baseball saga is much more typical of the road to the “Show.” He played at Sylvan Hills High School, a quality program at Arkansas’ high School baseball’s highest level, and by his senior year, he seemed destined to be a big-league star.

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The word from President’s Row

In the spring of 1978, I had completed my first year as the women’s basketball coach at Arkansas Tech. Most people on campus didn’t know my name or recognize me. That was not a bad thing, but it did keep me from the in-crowd at the April and May baseball games at the Tech field.

Finding a good standing spot was not usually a problem except on an unusual game day in early May, when Sylvan Hills High School was at Tech for a high school baseball game. The row behind the fence between the stands and the first base dugout was unofficially reserved for a select group of special fans. The Tech President sat there, as did several recognizable men from around town, and on this April day, a pro baseball scout or two. Each had a paper cup and a jaw full of chewing tobacco. One glance at their technique and you knew they had learned the Nellie Fox thing many years ago.

You could apparently earn a spot on “President’s Row” by being a person of some notoriety or perhaps by being a competent chewing tobacco user. I did not qualify as either. I might have earned a spot on President’s Row if I had learned to chew in college, but standing behind the dignitaries would be my usual spot.

High School senior, Kevin McReynolds, hit a home run that day that today would be on the roof of the Tech baseball facility behind a “green monster” of a left field wall. I have seen dozens of college games at what is now Baswell Field, but none featured an epic shot that compared to the homer an 18-year-old future major leaguer hit that afternoon.

While McReynolds circled the bases after his home run, a fellow on President’s row turned to one of the obvious pro scouts sitting nearby. “Is he a sure thing?” “Ain’t nobody a sure thing,” the old scout answered, between trips to his cup, “But he is as close as they get.”

Next week, a more complete Kevin McReynolds story.

Did you miss the story about the Arkansas Travelers football team in Monday’s Democrat- Gazette, the final edition of “Glove Stories,” or Hughie Critz and some glove math? Backroads and Ballplayers #124