Baseball and golf need to ban tobacco before going after steroid users

One night in a smoky sports bar, some friends and I decided that anything you could do while eating a hot dog or smoking wasn’t a sport.

Sports are about athleticism, coordination and health - none of which are promoted by chewing or smoking tobacco, which leads to serious diseases like black spots all over your skin - and nuisances like making your non-smoking buddy wait outside a restaurant with you as you huff down a pack before heading inside.

It should not be allowed on any professional athletic surface.

I’m not talking about your weekend round, of course. If we banned smoking and drinking on every golf course - our sport would be about as relevant in America as cricket.

Baseball players chewing and dipping, golfers like U.S. Open champ Angel Cabrera are a much different issue, however. Tobacco is a drug, just like steroids and can be used as an advantage. It is a stimulant and has altering physical and mental effects.

That’s not really the main problem though. There are kids in the gallery or the bleachers, watching heroes glamorize the stuff like it’s Cary Grant lighting a Camel - or Paris Hilton getting breast implants. Cabrera was asked several questions about his addiction in his Sunday press conference and his answers were all met with light-hearted laughter from the media. His smoking is looked at as part of his character: a mysterious, jovial Argentinian who is free-spirited enough to smoke whenever he pleases, even leading the U.S. Open on Sunday. It sends a dangerous message.

If an athlete wants to drink, smoke, ride motorcycles or shoot up strip clubs on their own time, I really don’t care all that much. If they want to suck down a few cigarettes in the clubhouse before teeing off or during breaks out of the public eye (plenty of hockey players dip at intermission), by all means.

But when the international spotlight is on them for their talents, I don’t want impressionable kids believing they got there as a result of the K-bear or Philip Morris.

I’d prefer to see commissioners Tim Finchem and Bud Selig tackle tobacco use before steroids. You can’t walk into any drug store and buy BALCO products but tobacco is a threat to any star-struck young athlete if it is commonplace on the playing field.