Jeff Short is a high school baseball coach now, but he used to be just another teenage ball player, dreaming of the Major Leagues. So he knows what his players are thinking when they watch their favorite players.
"When you look at a Major League dugout, and you see these players with tobacco," Short said, "First thing you think of - oh that's cool. Oh, I can do that."
A coalition of public health groups, including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Smoke Free Texas, are trying to stop this cycle. They've started a petition on Change.org, trying to get Major League Baseball to ban smokeless tobacco, just like they did a few years ago in the minor leagues.
