Stephen Strasburg Trying to Give Up Smokeless Tobacco

Filed under: Nationals, NL East

As if returning from Tommy John surgery weren't enough to keep him occupied, Stephen Strasburg has added another big task to his to-do list in the weeks and months to come.

He's trying to kick his habit of stuffing a wad of tobacco in his lower lip. Like many other professional baseball players, Strasburg uses smokeless tobacco while on the clock, and he's trying to use his time away from the game to stop dipping. The inspiration for his change in ways was the cancer diagnosis received by Tony Gwynn, the Hall of Famer who managed Strasburg at San Diego State.

"I'm still in the process of quitting," Strasburg said. "I've made a lot of strides, stopped being so compulsive with it. I'm hoping I'm going to be clean for spring training. It's going to be hard, because it's something that's embedded in the game."

 

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