when you’re a kid, there’s nothing cooler than a big wad of chewing tobacco. no wait… that’s not right. i am sure that even then i thought chewing tobacco was disgusting. so selling candy masked as tobacco was never a really big selling point for me (candy cigarettes? no… thanks. now candy bongs…). in fact, thinking back, there were a lot of wacky gimmicks that candy companies used (and still use) to market shit to kids. and, honestly, i guess it worked pretty well on me. but i feel like baseball and gum share more of a history than, say, rings and lollipops do. gum has been packaged with baseball cards for a long time, and i guess chewing gum resembles chewing tobacco, which has been a longtime staple of baseball players. SO i suppose this step was inevitable.
it is gum, shredded. in a pouch. and that’s it! nothing really special. maybe some kids like to look like they’re chewing tobacco. i don’t quite know how i got into big league chew, but i am guessing my father had a hand in it. regardless of how it worked out, i love the stuff. it’s the ultimate in gum delivery.
the gum itself is shredded into little strips, and i’m guessing floured so it doesn’t stick together (which it still does). the flavor is alright, nothing special (i like a good grape gum, and this satisfies that need). and it doesn’t last for a really long time or anything. it is a thick, strong gum that produces a very nice pop. but what’s really so great about it is that it’s just a bag of gum. take what you need. grab some, stuff it in your mouth, and when the flavor runs out, grab more. when it hurts to chew, you’re done. and by then end, you’ve got yourself a big gob of flavorless sludge… awesome.
it’s good road trip gum. i wouldn’t eat it all the time, but it’s nice for some nostalgia every now and then.