Everything You Need To Know About Big League Chew: Hot Chocolate Flavor
Whenever I see a pouch of Big League Chew—the chewing gum that comes in shreds that resemble chewing tobacco—I immediately think back to my 12-year-old self putting a big wad of Outta’ Here Original in my mouth. Ground Ball Grape was also good, but I wasn’t a fan of Swingin’ Sour Apple.
Admittedly, I had very specific tastes when it came to sweets as a kid. I liked Bubble Yum, but only the grape flavor. For Now & Laters, it was grape or watermelon. For Jolly Ranchers, it was watermelon or nothing at all. Juicy Fruit? No thanks. I prefer my gum to last more than 10 seconds.
Big League Chew has added flavors over the years, including Wild Pitch Watermelon and Big Rally Blue Raspberry. In May of 2019, they were a sponsor at the Hall of Fame Classic Bubble Blowing Contest on International Womens Day. Then, earlier this year, a girl was featured on the package for the first time and Slammin’ Strawberry joined the roster of Big League Chew flavors.
All of those flavors—original, grape, sour apple, watermelon, raspberry, and strawberry—sound fine for chewing gum, but the latest flavor, special for the holidays, is hot chocolate. Yep, Hot Chocolate Big League Chew.
From the senior v.p. of sales and marketing at Ford Gum: “This new flavor extends the bubble gum chewing experience similar to the long, slow sips of the beloved warm, chocolate drink that brings joy and comfort to so many this time of year.”
As a person who likes to read sentences, I don’t think that’s a very good one. I don’t think the bubble gum chewing experience is at all similar to long, slow sips of a hot beverage. Maybe I chew my gum more vigorously than most and there really are people out there who chew gum in long, slow sip-like chews, but I’m not really buying what that guy’s selling.
As for hot chocolate flavored gum in particular, that doesn’t sound good to me either. Admittedly, I haven’t tried it so I shouldn’t knock it. It’s just that when I think of hot chocolate, I imagine getting one of those glorious snow days when I was a student. After hearing school was canceled because of snow, and before looking around the house for something I could use to slide down the nearest hill, I’d have hot chocolate and peanut butter toast. It was tradition. Every snow day for all those school-age years, I had hot chocolate and peanut butter toast. Hot chocolate flavored gum? I don’t know about that.
In the interest of research, I looked online for Hot Chocolate Big League Chew so I could conduct an official taste test, but it was sold out. It must be flying off the shelves for the holiday season. It’s too bad because, as Rob Nelson, the inventor of Big League Chew says, “Hot Chocolate [Big League Chew] is the perfect gift to wrap up a special 40th anniversary year for Big League Chew.”
Nelson is the co-creator of Big League Chew, along with the late baseball player, author, and iconoclast, Jim Bouton. They were teammates on an independent, A-ball team in the 1970s, the Portland Mavericks. The inspiration for Big League Chew was a batboy named Todd Field, who had a pouch full of licorice that he’d chopped up so it resembled chewing tobacco. Nelson saw Field chewing his home-made concoction and the Big League Chew idea was born, as described in this Esquire interview with Nelson:
At that time in the minor leagues, a lot of guys did chew tobacco. But I never did. I spent a lot of time in the bullpen just observing guys. Jim Bouton, a former World Series hero for the New York Yankees, became my teammate on the Mavericks as he tried to mount a comeback after being away from major league baseball for a few years. He looked at me during one game and said, “Did you ever try chewing tobacco?” I said, “Yeah, for less than a minute.” Bouton said, “Yeah, me too. It just never made sense to me.”
Maybe an inning later, I said to Jim, “You know, if we shredded bubble gum and put it in a pouch, we could look cool and have some fun with it. We’d look like tough guys but wouldn’t make ourselves ill.” Another inning later, Jim said to me, “I really like that idea. What would you call it?” I remember saying, “I don’t know, uh, Big League Chew?”
Nelson created the gum and Bouton spearheaded the marketing. They never imagined it would become an iconic part of the childhood of millions of kids over the last 40 years. According to Nelson, San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey is a big fan of Big League Chew, as is Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager, who only chews the Outta’ Here Original flavor because he used to chew Ground Ball Grape in high school and hit a bunch of ground balls. I guess Outta’ Here Original is the preferred gum of fly ball hitters and Ground Ball Grape is for sinkerball pitchers.
The Big League Chew origin story is part of the Netflix documentary “The Battered Bastards of Baseball,” which tells the tale of the Portland Mavericks in the 1970s. It’s a fun movie to watch while we wait out the winter months for baseball to start again, although not everyone would agree (the writer makes some good points, particularly about the sanitized portrayal of manager Frank Peters, who was no saint). Along with Nelson and Bouton, the movie features the actor Kurt Russell and his father Bing, who was the heart and soul of the Maverick. He’s the one that made it all happen.
The documentary has some interesting tidbits of information, like the fact that Kurt Russell played for the Mavericks. According to Baseball-Reference, Russell hit .292/.380/.365 in four minor league seasons, primarily playing second base in Low-A. That would make him a better baseball player than actor/comedian/everybody’s favorite uncle Bill Murray, who only had two at-bats in his minor league career.
Kurt Russell’s last season with the Mavericks, who played in the Northwest League, was 1977. Bill Murray had his two at-bats for the Grays Harbor Loggers, also of the Northwest League, but his playing time came in 1978, so the future Hollywood stars missed each other on the ballfield by a year.
Neither Russell nor Murray achieved as much on the diamond as actor Scott Patterson, also known as Luke Danes, owner of Luke’s Diner on Gilmore Girls. Russell played 23 games in Double-A, and Murray had his two at-bats in Low-A, but Patterson spent parts of five seasons in Triple-A. He could never quite get to the major leagues, not even for the proverbial cup of coffee, which would have been fitting for the guy who poured many mugs of joe for Lorelai and Rory over the years.
Along with Nelson, Bouton, Kurt Russell and his father/proprietor Bing Russell, the Portland Mavericks had a female GM, Lanny Moss, believed to be a first for a professional baseball team. The batboy mentioned earlier, Todd Field, went on to co-write and direct the movie In the Bedroom, which was nominated for multiple Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Another Mavericks’ batboy was Matt Franco, who played eight years in the major leagues, most of them with the New York Mets.
