How a Minor League Pitcher Turned a Dugout Conversation Into Big League Chew

Rob Nelson, who baked the first batch of the iconic gum 40 years ago, talked to Esquire about the Genesis behind an American rite of passage.

How a Minor League Pitcher Turned a Dugout Conversation Into Big League Chew When children of the 1980s and '90s meet Rob Nelson, they share with him a version of the same misty, water-colored memory: the dusty dugout of a hometown baseball field, a scrappy summer little-league team, and a communal pouch of Big League Chew—the shredded bubble gum that Nelson, a former minor-league pitcher, invented in 1979. Forty years later, Nelson's creation has become closely allied with our national pastime, a sport of spitting and gum chewing and chewing things over. More than 800 million pouches of Big League Chew have been sold. The company does about $16 to $17 million in revenue each year. And a pouch hangs in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. "I like to say that my arm's not in the Hall of Fame, but my gum is," Nelson told me. "It's not the way I thought I'd get in, but I have no complaints." He stood amid the vast aisles of candy displays at the National Confectioners Association's Sweets & Snacks Expo inside Chicago's McCormick Place convention center, manning the Big League Chew booth as a sort of mascot for the brand. It is a cartoon of his face, after all, that graces the current pack of Outta' Here Original flavor. "That's me from very, very long ago, when I was in my 20s," Nelson said, somewhat wistfully. At the age of 70, though, he has maintained an athletic physique as well as his Redfordian good looks, with a square jaw and tousled graying blond hair. A lefty hurler while earning a degree in philosophy at Cornell University, he went on to a long career as a journeyman on teams in places as far flung as South Africa and Australia. "I finished pitching in my late 40s," he says. "I had a great run for somebody who, frankly, just wasn't that good." It was his halcyon days in the mid-70s with the independent Portland Mavericks—the ball club owned by Bonanza actor Bing Russell, the father of movie star and former minor-leaguer Kurt Russell—that led Nelson toward improbable baseball immortality with his invention of one of the most legendary sports-associated confections. As one of the millions of kids who grew up playing ball with a wad of pink saccharine goo nestled in my cheek, I felt a certain nostalgic charge talking with the man behind Big League Chew. Nelson spoke about baking the first batch of gum, going into business with All-Star New York Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton, butting heads with activists who viewed his product as a gateway to chewing tobacco, and why a product that can be relatively difficult to find in stores has managed to endure for four decades.    Read the Full Story The Zombie Cocktail is a Very Scary Monster The Zombie cocktail is not for the faint of heart. In fact, it's not for those with mid-range hearts, or hearts that waver in the face of grave danger, either. The Zombie is a scary drink, because it is made with no fewer than four types of rum—white, golden, dark, and the terrifying 151-proof—and three different fruit juices. Oh, and straight sugar. It is what we at Esquire call the mother of all freak drinks. Read the Full Story The Fleabag Priest Is Hot. But the Grantchester Priest on PBS Is Hotter. When season two of Fleabag hit Amazon Prime to great acclaim in May, all anyone on Twitter could talk about was "the hot priest." Played by Andrew Scott, Fleabag's hot priest brings sexual tension, spiritual insight, and emotional availability in spades. Hot Priest Discourse reached terminal velocity when TV critics swarmed the phenomenon with a slew of sharp thinkpieces. But the real hot priest has been hiding in plain sight all along—in fact, his name is Reverend Sidney Chambers, and you can find him in the unlikeliest of places on PBS' Grantchester. Read the Full Story These Are the Best Summer Shows to Binge When it Gets Too Damn Hot Outside With the lines of TV seasons getting blurred more and more every year, late spring isn't just for finales anymore. With that being said, how can you keep up with what's coming, what's going, and what's actually worth your time? Don't sweat. We've got you covered. While you're trying to stay cool inside, take advantage of the summer TV season. Here's a rundown of 15 shows that are worth your time when the temperature is too damn hot to go outside. Read the Full Story The 10 Best Amazon Prime Day Tech Deals to Shop (So Far) Amazon Prime Day is nearly upon us, which means anyone with a Prime account is about to be given the opportunity to dump a significant portion of their paycheck on a bunch of deals—some of them good deals, some not so good. And while Prime Day doesn't technically start until Monday at 3 p.m. ET (and runs all through Tuesday), there are some good deals already live that you can cash in on. In particular, deals on cool tech. Read the Full Story René Redzepi Gathered the Best Chefs in the World—and Me—for a Wild Cooking Competition For four years, Esquire's Food Editor Jeff Gordinier followed the meteoric rise of Noma, widely acknowledged as the best restaurant in the world, and its mastermind René Redzepi, widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative chefs to ever touch food. Though Noma has been a Copenhagen hotspot for a decade, its influence has since crisscrossed the globe, collecting acolytes along the way. In this excerpt from his new book, Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World (out now), Gordinier recounts a night in 2016 among some of the most renowned chefs of our time, who Redzepi gathered in one place to compete over dinner. Gordinier himself was only barely injured in the making of that meal. Read the Full Story   Follow Us     Unsubscribe  Privacy Notice   esquire.com ©2019 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019