Should Major League baseball snuff out snuff?

Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News is the latest to think so, writing in this morning's editions that baseball's bulging cheeks and dugout juice puddles should be legislated the way of Pete Rose, PEDs and pepper games.

But does baseball really need to institute a ban?

These days, it's rare that you'll find anyone — even among those who locate their pouches before a ball, glove or bat — who doesn't agree that the habit is one of the dirtiest and most dangerous around. By now, the risks of gum disease and cancer are well known and MLB likes to regularly crow about the declining number of players using the wretched stuff. There's hardly anyone out there who hasn't at least heard a warning or 12 about its dangers.

Heck, even the players and managers who can't escape their addiction seem ashamed of their use and acknowledge that it's wrong by rarely talking about it publicly. Over the past 10 years, I've never seen any ballplayer actively glorifying its use and if there's anyone who looks at the above picture of Lenny Dykstra and takes up chewing tobacco solely because he thinks Nails looks glamorous while doing it ... well, that's Darwinism at its finest, I suppose.

(Seriously, that is indisputably the most revolting picture we've ever run on the Stew, though if it keeps one kid from growing up to be a dipper, it will have been worth posting.)

Yet because it's still legal to chew tobacco and because most players do it on the down low, I generally don't think that MLB needs to put a ban on the junk. If a player wants to make the decision to destroy his mouth, who is Bud Selig to stop him? (Libertarians unite!)

However, I can see the other side. MLB is a private employer and can dictate behavior as little or as much as it wants. Plus, there's been a minor league ban on chewing tobacco since 1993 — with fines ranging from $100 to $1,000 — so why should the big guys be exempt?

Look, this is a complex issue and one that involves an addiction that I wouldn't wish on anyone. However, I'm interested to know what you think of the prospect of MLB banning the use of chewing tobacco. Should the league ban its use? Why or why not?