MISSOULA, Mont. — In 1948, Babe Ruth died from oral cancer.

The nicknames are countless. Ruth went as the “The Sultan of Swat,” “The Bambino,” “The Colossus of Clout.” He went as the greatest player to ever live.

But he could’ve also been remembered as “The Big Dipper,” for all the wrong reasons. For Ruth, chewing tobacco will never end his legacy. But it did end his life.

Baseball has a lot of problems. But steroids and salary caps don’t present the game with the kind of dilemma chewing tobacco does. There’s too much history behind chaw and baseball.

When baseball was introduced in the United States in 1845, the country embraced dry tobacco for practical reasons. The game was often played on dusty landscapes, which led players to chew to moisten their mouths. Already popular in baseball’s infant history, spit tobacco proliferated in the early 1900s, when in 1902, pitchers in the minor leagues began experimenting with lathering baseballs with chew saliva, giving the pitch sharp curve. The revolutionary “spitball” was later banned in 1920, but in large part, became the foundation for breaking pitches in baseball’s future.

In 1910, the American Tobacco Company introduced baseball cards in its products, heightening the commercial polish of American baseball and its relationship with tobacco. Baseball and spit never looked back. The infamous Ty Cobb was known to not only chew Nerve Navy Cut extensively, but he also doused his bat with the juice of the tobacco leaves, acting as old-school pine tar. Ruth dipped his Bull Durham chew in rum.Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams were in tobacco magazine ads. Tobacco companies sent free samples to clubs throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Chewing became woven into baseball’s fabric, but it also set a cultural tone visible in today’s game.Today, an astounding 40 percent of the Major League’s players use spitless tobacco.

The MLB predicament, however, is tobacco’s influence on youth. In 1985, “Big League Chew” was introduced as a popular gum, geared to capitalize on America’s youth obsession over Major League stars using Copenhagen. While some saw this as a positive push for children to chew gum rather than dip, the symbolism of young players running down the first base line with a wad in their cheek emulating their major league heroes signifies the image of chaw in baseball.

As the national pastime, baseball is truly the game for all time. Its ritualistic nature transcends this country like no other sport ever will. And snuff is engrained in baseball. That will never change. Players want to connect with the game the way the greats did; they want to taste what Ruth tasted when he called his shot. They want to spit their wad like Fisk did before his walk-off homer went fair. This history, however, is very dangerous leverage for influencing the youth baseball generation.

The MLB has acted. The league offers educational classes on chew, as well as screening for players. In 1993, the league banned smokeless tobacco from the minor leagues, and aligned with the American Dental Association to promote information about the harmful nature of smokeless tobacco in baseball. The league has also banned its teams from sponsoring free samples or any other tobacco products in clubhouses. But chewing at the major league level hinges as a personal decision, with banishment coming only if the players’ union gives its collective agreement.

There is also a growing culture of former big-leaguers who religiously dipped. Bill Tuttle, who played for the Detroit Tigers in the ’70s, was a testament to the afterlife of dipping in the majors; Tuttle toured much of the country, with only half of his face remaining after tumor removals, advocating for the ban of spit tobacco in the MLB. He died of oral cancer at the age of 69.

Tradition in baseball is sacred.Taking dip out of the culture of the sport, in many ways, is a drastic move against the spiritual nature of the game. It could very well be likened to taking the pinstripes off the Yankees, the peanuts out of Ebbets, or stripping the vines off Wrigley.

That’s not to say tradition in the sport can’t be revised. When chewing died down in baseball during the ’60s, most players smoked. When the early ’70s exposed a national awareness movement on the dangers of smoking, a majority of the league turned back to dip. This season has also raised questions of alcohol’s place in the game. Over time, images of Mickey Mantle having a brewski while talking to reporters after games has resonated as a part of the historical clubhouse climate; the Brewer’s organization and the stature of sponsored venues such as Coors Field have illustrated the enduring role of alcohol in baseball. But when St. Louis pitcher Josh Hancock died while driving drunkenly after a game this spring, several clubs, including the Brewers and Yankees, banned liquor in the clubhouse.

In 1977, Sports Illustrated published an in-depth feature titled “Chaws,” featuring quotes from 102 players on the celebration of chew in baseball. One player said, “”Tobacco gives your teeth protection on plays at home plate,” while another added, “In my day, and I’m talking about 1952 to 1960, to be a big leaguer you had to chew.”

Simply enough, these quotes attest to the historical attitude of chew in the MLB, as well as haunt advocates to rid the sport of the practice.

Manny Ramirez is one of the game’s best players today. As much of Ramirez’s trademark swing, as much of his power to put any low-and-away pitch off the green monster in right, is his signature left cheek, molded with fresh Copenhagen. So much so that maybe his Cooperstown bust will carry his giant smile, with his classic dreadlocks hanging, and a bronze pouch in the cheek, preserved in time.

The bust represents baseball’s stark reality: steep tradition at the expense of health. A can of worms is eventually opened.

For the national pastime, actually, it’s more like opening a can of chaw.