Editor's letter: Why do baseball players spit?

last updated 8 January 2015

With the baseball season heading down the final stretch, football officially underway, and Andy Murray facing off against Novak Djokovic in a memorable U.S. Open final, this week has been a bonanza for sports fans. My enjoyment has been heightened because my wife, Nichol, has suddenly become obsessed with the New York Yankees. Though I come from a Mets-Jets family, I have patiently watched Yankees games and answered her questions on the infield fly rule and other arcana. But she stumped me with this: Why do baseball players spit incessantly? When I was younger, ballplayers who spit were chewing tobacco. Today, players are working on big wads of Dubble Bubble or spraying white speckles from chewed-up sunflower seeds. Neither of which explains the deluge of saliva from players, managers, coaches, and umpires.

Mary C. Lamia, a California psychoanalyst, said players spit to intimidate their opponents. “Spitting evokes a disgust response,” she explained. When they spit, players are displaying their “fearless disdain, condescension, or disregard” for the other side. That works for me, and I know Nichol shares the disgust response. But Lamia’s theory omits important context. If it were just about intimidating an opponent, why wouldn’t either of the players engaged in one of the longest tennis matches in history have availed themselves of spitting’s power? Because decorum in tennis won’t allow it. The truth is, baseball could banish the practice as it did spitballs and smoking in the dugout. But I bet it won’t. Whether it’s the heartbreaking Mets or that other New York team, a certain lack of gentility is part of the game—and it shouldn’t be any other way.