Mayor Walsh could’ve been forgiven for perhaps not wanting to jump immediately back into the world of sports following his sour experience with Boston 2024, but he has done so in bold fashion. Earlier on Wednesday, Walsh announced that he will be filing for a new city ordinance, banning smokeless tobacco in sports venues (professional and amateur) in Boston.
It’s a momentous step, especially for baseball, where smokeless tobacco has been a mainstay for decades. Stopping the usage at Fenway Park would be a milestone for improving public health. And the ban, which would come with a $250 fine, could be enacted just in time for next year’s baseball season: April 1st, 2016.
“I am in support of banning any kind of tobacco at Fenway Park or in any public location,” former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling said as part of the announcement. “I have seen cancer take the lives of people very important to me like my father, a lifelong smoker, and I have endured the insufferable agony of radiation to the head/neck. If this law stops just one child from starting, it’s worth the price. Because that child could be yours, or mine.”
And Schilling, who has been a powerful speaker on this subject repeatedly, is undoubtedly one of the best possible proponents of reversing generations of habit in not only professional players, but also little kids. Everyone remembers this scene from The Sandlot:
It ends with the kids ignominiously puking all over themselves while on the carnival ride (ironically of course, Walsh’s ordnance wouldn’t technically apply to a fairground). And while the passage in the movie is hilarious, it’s sadly telling that smokeless tobacco remains such an issue for young people today as it was in the era the scene is supposed to take place in. Still, the political stance taken by Walsh on this issue makes him one of the very first to do so in an era that appears to be on the verge of sweeping change.
While San Francisco became the first to enact a similar city ordinance earlier this year (which will take effect January of 2016), it was led by the City Council. In Boston, it’s Walsh who’s leading the charge.
And while Boston City Council still has to vote on and approve the ordinance, it doesn’t seem likely that there will be any measurable opposition.
Image via Kevin McCarthy
