Bochy's quest to quit
dipping is a tough haul
AP – San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy holds cans of non-tobacco Young's Chew in his office before … SAN FRANCISCO – Bruce Bochy made it almost a month this time in his quest to finally quit dipping.He thought he had kicked the habit at last, then the San Francisco Giantsbegan to struggle and the manager quickly reverted back to his oldways. Bochy reached for his longtime go-to stress reliever: that tinyround tin that's been a staple in his life going on 40 years.Eventhose like Bochy who agree with Congress pushing baseball to stop majorleaguers from using chew, dip or similar tobacco products during games,they know it's going to be a chore to actually succeed in making thathappen. Bochy has been dipping since he was 18."It's tough, man," he said. "You don't know 'til you've tried it."Bochy's not proud of the fact he can't seem to kick it. He has urged his two baseball-playing adult sons never to start.Theskipper typically stops dipping each winter, when he's away from theday-to-day pressures of a 162-game season. The dip, he has repeatedlysaid, gives him an edge and makes him feel sharper to make all thetough in-game decisions.Bochy has provided regular updates to The Associated Press during his efforts to give up his daily dip.___The manager pushed a piece of gum to the front of his teeth, making it visible, and started to chomp."It's Nicorette," he said with a grin.There was no chewing tobacco in sight, a big deal for Bochy. It was April 23 before the opener of a weekend series with the St. Louis Cardinals,going on the 16th game of the season. Bochy decided in recent days hewas ready to quit dipping once and for all. He had committed to theidea."I'm going to try it," he said,emphatically pounding his right hand into his glove. "The coaches saidthey're going to the other end of the dugout tonight. (Third base coach Tim Flannery) has been around me when I've tried to quit in the middle of the season. ..."I looked at myself spitting and said, 'Come on, Bruce,'" he said. "I told my boys I don't want them doing it and I'm doing it.""I've taken the fake stuff and put a little bit of tobacco with it to wean myself off. The trainers did it for me."Giantsathletic trainer Dave Groeschner ordered Bochy some of the non-tobaccodip — two logs of 10 cans of the herbal stuff, two different kinds, tosee what Bochy liked best."I hope he does it, but I'll be surprised," Groeschner said. "I've heard this before. It's a real addiction."After a 4-1 win by two-time reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum, Bochy beamed. Three pieces of Nicorette did the trick, two before the game and another during."I made it," he said afterward. "I got through it. How 'bout that?"___The 55-year-old Bochy tried his first dip at 18. He was playing in asummer league in Virginia, and his roommate from North Carolina chewedevery day."I said, 'Let me try it,'" he recalled. "Like everybody, thefirst time I got sick. The second time, I tolerated it. And by thethird and fourth time, I was fine."For years as a manager, he dipped in the first, fifth and eighth innings."Superstitious as much as anything," he said. "Habit."Occasionally, he'll do it when fishing or on the golf course.___While Major League Baseball doesn't keep statistics of thenumber of players and managers using smokeless tobacco, baseballofficials say it has noticeably dropped over the past two decades. Backthen, it seemed as if most every player had a tin in his back pocket.Anecdotal evidence also points to that — especially with a banon it in the minors and Congress pushing baseball to stop majorleaguers from using chew, dip or similar products during games."The percentages are down," Padres manager Bud Black said. "Alot of it has to do with guys who come up to the major leagues, it'sprohibited (in the minors), and there's tobacco awareness and guys aretaking it to heart. I don't see dip cups or cans around as much as Idid."___Giants third-base coach Tim Flannery is used to Bochy's mood swings when he tries to quit."He gets grouchy," Flannery said. "I joke, 'That's what theoffseason's for.' I want him to smoke cigars. I liked him on morphinethe day after his arm surgery (last year). He was a little puppy dog.Now he's a great big bear."Bochy and Flannery go back decades together, to their playingdays with the Padres as teammates from 1983-87. Flannery worked onBochy's staff in San Diego before coming with him to the Giants in 2007.Most years at spring training,these two discuss their plans to stay healthy for the next seven-plusmonths. Only white wine, organic food, regular exercise. It lasts for ashort while."This game beats on you so bad that by August you're doingtequila shots, not sleeping and eating late-night cheeseburgers,"Flannery said. "With the schedule, you say, 'How in the world did I getthrough one year, let alone 31?'"Bochy's wife, Kim, isn't getting involved in the latest effort. She's tired of nagging him.___Another day early in the process, Bochy was a little uneasy with a night game still several hours away.Broadcaster Duane Kuiper,a former major leaguer himself, walked into the dugout and gave theskipper an earful. The usual, good-natured pregame banter that's part of the game."You got a dip in? Or you got that big wad of gum in, Nicorette?" Kuiper asked."I wonder what would happen if I put four Nicorettes in," Bochy quipped.___The family on the side of Bochy's late mother, Melrose, lives on atobacco farm in tiny Wade, N.C. He used to work on the farm in thesummers and his grandmother, Mamie, "always had a dip in."So, he comes by this fairly naturally.And being in baseball, it's been hard to avoid over the years.If he didn't have his own can, somebody nearby always had enough toshare."I don't go home and dip," he said. "The triggers for me are atthe ballpark. The last five years I quit during the winter. I made itdeep into spring training this year."___By April 27, Bochy had gone six days without tobacco. He pulled a canof non-tobacco, herb-blend snuff from the front pocket of his Giantswarmup jacket and nervously fiddled with the cap."It's got spices, grape leaf, glycerin. Is glycerin good foryou?" he asked. "They actually say when you're quitting, the best wayis the mix (with some tobacco). I kind of cold-turkeyed it."Bochy realized in late April while back in his old San Diego stomping grounds he was ready to do this."That's when I said 'enough,'" he recalled.___Colorado came into town in late April and Bochy had company:Rockies manager Jim Tracy quit dipping earlier this year — "coldturkey." He wasn't planning on it, per se.Tracy stopped after the final play of the Super Bowl because it "was snowing the size of half-dollars" in Pittsburgh,he was in his pajamas and unwilling to brave the weather — or take histruck down the hill in the snow — for a trip to the Sunoco Station toget himself a new can.So, that was it."The next morning, I said, 'This is going to be hard, but I'mgoing to do it,'" Tracy said. "Now, I only think about it when (Todd)Helton comes by with a can under my nose."Like Bochy, Tracy had dipped since he was 18. He took his first dip of Beech-Nut as a college freshman."My lips are getting chapped from all the sunflower seeds," Tracy said, smiling.___By the time Bochy was back from a tough road trip to Florida and New York, he was dipping again.In the Giants' third game with the Mets on May 9, San Francisco went ahead 4-0, blew the lead only to win after Aaron Rowand's two-run homer in the eighth. Bochy asked shortstop Edgar Renteria for some dip."I cheated," Bochy said. "The last game, in the eighth inning, Ilost it. I put one in. I was beside myself the way the game was going —up 4-0, then we're losing. I put one in and it brought us luck. One,that's pretty good, wasn't it? That was it. I had to calm down."___Bochy is still trying to kick the habit, and has cut back once again."I'm doing gum," he said. "Instead of the regular stuff, I'm doing the fake and half and half."He hopes it works, but is realistic at the same time."It's a hard game. It wears on you," Flannery said. "At the endof the season, we all have our little detox programs, Chinese herbs. Wehave to get healthy again."