With the baseball world still mourning the death of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, Washington Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg has made the decision to quit chewing tobacco.
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MLB.com reports that while Gwynn -- Strasburg's college baseball coach -- was a part of the reason for his decision, Strasburg's daughter is his primary motivation to kick the habit.
"I think it's a disgusting habit, looking back on it," the Nationals right-hander told reporters on Monday. "I was pretty naive when I started. Just doing it here and there, I didn't think it was going to be such an addiction. ... Bottom line is, I want to be around for my family. This is something that can affect people the rest of your life. [Chewing tobacco is] so prevalent in this game. It's something we all kind of grew up doing."
Gwynn, a baseball coach at San Diego State, passed away of salivary gland cancer last week that he believed was developed due to his chewing tobacco habit. Strasburg had said that he started chewing tobacco before he met Gwynn and that he wasn't aware that Gwynn dipped.
Strasburg was unable to attend Gwynn's funeral on Saturday much to his dismay.
"I thought there was an outside chance I would be able to fly home and attend the private service that they had on Saturday," Strasburg said. "There was no possible way. It kind of sucked not being able to be there for it."
Strasburg struggled in his last start on Friday on the eve of Gwynn's funeral, yielding four runs and nine hits in six innings in a 6-4 loss to the Atlanta Braves, but he wasn't ready to blame a heavy heart on his struggles.
"I'm not going to sit there and make excuses. He wasn't that type of guy, either," Strasburg said.
Like most people connected to him, Strasburg had nothing but nice things to say about Gwynn following his passing.
"He was such an unbelievable person, human being. I mean he touched so many lives. Not only in the San Diego area, but all of baseball," Strasburg said. "One of the things that I really enjoyed watching him as a kid was, he was intense out there on the field, but he always cracked a smile. You could see that everyone was drawn to him. Given a chance to know him on a personal level, you could see how could brighten everyone's day. When we weren't playing well, he always had a smile on his face."
Strasburg, 25, is 6-5 with a 3.24 ERA thus far this season as the Nationals (40-35) hold on to the first place position in the National League East standings.
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