Why Are Baseball Players Always Eating Something?

I watched a baseball game last night for the first time in a year. I know that exactly because the last time I sat through a game was the final game of the World Series last year. Ok, it wasn’t actually the whole game … just from the fifth or so inning onwards. The truth is, I generally find baseball way too slow to watch. But the one thing that is hard to miss is how baseball players always seem to be chewing on something.

An article this week from The Atlantic aims to answer this question of why baseball players always seem to be eating. The conclusion, in a nutshell (see what I did there?), seems to be that no one really knows but there are plenty of theories. One is that in the early days of baseball, players would chew tobacco and use the juice to soften their mitts or to throw spitballs. A less disgusting explanation is that chewing sunflower seeds, for example, helps players brains stay “stimulated and occupied, which allows for better sensory perception.” Of course, the source of this “science behind players chewing” story is a company that makes sunflower seeds.

Another explanation is that players chew something “to keep their mouths moist during long games” due to the combination of dirt and clay from the field that swirls around in the air. Yet another possible explanation is that maybe they just need something to do for the long periods of time that they are sitting around waiting for something to happen. Of course, if this last theory really was the reason, then baseball fans should probably be chewing something constantly too.