With inspiration and bit of perspiration, a product was born.
The year is 1977. Portland Mavericks left-handed pitcher, Rob Nelson, was sitting in the dugout with teammate Jim Bouton. Back then, chewing tobacco was a big deal in professional baseball and that’s what the two men were talking about that day.
“Have you ever done that (chew) before?” Bouton asked Nelson. He had tried it once, Nelson replied, but it made him sick. Bouton understood. He hadn’t gotten into tobacco chewing, either.
That’s when a lightbulb went on.
Nelson had an idea: “Maybe, we could shred gum and chew it. That way we could look cool and not feel ill.”
Bouton loved the idea. “Rob, I can sell that idea,” he said.
For those who don’t know him, Jim Bouton was once a major league pitcher. He played with the Yankees and was on the team that won the 1962 championship. He also played in the 1963 MLB All-Star Game and won two starts in the 1964 World Series.
Courtesy: MLB – NBC Sports
But Bouton is probably best remembered for writing a famous (and infamous) book entitled, Ball Four. In the book, Bouton went into detail about the 1969 season–not about his game–but about players’ off-field antics. The response from MLB was swift and pointed: Bouton was blacklisted from MLB. That’s how he landed in Portland with the Mavericks, an independent team playing in an unaffiliated (with MLB) league.
Bouton was looking for another path to fame and fortune. But in this case, he had a problem: neither he nor Nelson knew anything about gum-making.
So. to get started, Nelson found an article about how to do it and purchased some raw material with which to experiment. Nelson and Bouton went over to the home of Mavericks’ batboy, Todd Field (who would later become an Oscar-nominated producer), and the three started shredding gum. The result was gum that looked like chewing tobacco.
With product in hand, Nelson and Bouton started pitching the idea to gum companies. Most thought it was an interesting idea, but passed on the concept. They finally got a hit with Amurol Products, a subsidiary of the Wrigley Co. In 1980 a product called Big League Chew was born.
Courtesy: Candy Industry
Big League Chew sold $18 million in wholesale sales the first year it was on the market. I remember buying it back then at convenient and grocery stores. Since then, over 750 million pouches have been purchased worldwide.
It’s still one of my favorite chews … gum, that is.
This is a great article! I had some of this growing up. I have never smoked or chewed tobacco. So, I thought this was a great idea. I never knew how this came about?! Thanks Matthew Paris for bringing this info to light. I never really knew how this got started…but, now I do. Love the article.