Letters policy
Send by e-mail to letters@gainesvilletimes.com (no attached files, please, which can contain viruses); fax to 770-532-0457; mail to The Times, P.O. Box 838, Gainesville, GA 30503; or click here for a form. Include full name, hometown and phone number for confirmation. They should be limited to one topic on issues of public interest and may be edited for content and length (limit of 500 words). Letters originating from other sources, those involving personal, business or legal disputes, poetry, expressions of faith or memorial tributes may be rejected. You may be limited to one letter per month, two on a single topic. Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters, columns and cartoons express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times editorial board.
He stared me in the eye and, through a space between his teeth, spit into the plate of food in my lap.
The culprit was a batter in a televised baseball game I was watching, but though this was virtual reality, it was real enough to take my appetite.
Baseball players are constantly spitting. Sometimes their spit lands where some other guy will scoop a handful of dirt to improve this grip on the bat. The only useful use of spit in baseball seems to be when a player spits into his glove and rubs the saliva into the leather using the ungloved hand to work the spit into the leather.
Intermixed with the primary game of baseball is the team sport of trashing the floor of the dugout. To play this game they sit and spit, throw cups of beverage on the floor and stomp it all into a pig sty. Sometimes I feel this is done jokingly to intimidate the televiewers. They win that game of sloth hands down!
Back to the regular spitting: I wonder what players chew to create this much saliva. It used to be snuff but I rarely see the telltale circular impression made by a snuff can in a rear pocket. Unconfirmed rumor has it that G-Braves' management has outlawed snuff.
Lee S. Bowers
Gainesville