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For as long as the game dates back, baseball has had a love affair with tobacco. If it weren’t for tobacco, we wouldn’t have baseball cards today – they originally came packaged with chewing tobacco; one of the earliest ways to target kids. Heck, even the term “bullpen” was created in 1860 by the Bull Durham tobacco company as a way to link their product to the game.

Fast -forward over 100 years and we’re finally starting to see that the longstanding relationship isn’t what it once was.

MLB commissioner, Bud Selig, is in talks with the players’ union about the future of tobacco use in the game…or rather, the non-use of it in the future. While pro ball players are grown adults and have the right to decide whether or not to use, there are a couple overlying dilemmas when it comes to chewing tobacco (the most commonly used form of tobacco in the game).

First, the health issue: In a day and age when steroids are all the talk in sports, the health of athletes takes center stage but until recently, nobody raised too much of a stink about tobacco. The long-term effects of which can be deadly and if the MLB wants to ensure the health of it’s employees, tobacco use is glaring contradiction.

Second the role model issue: kids love, adore and idolize the players. If you’re a young kid seeing your hero take a dip during batting practice, what does that do to your impression of tobacco? These kids mimic the players’ swing, throw and body language…so why wouldn’t tobacco usage seem appealing too?

With the season coming to an end soon, this issue wont be resolved by The World Series but next season, with enough support, we could see public bans of tobacco usage on all major league fields.

In a never-ending attempt to make tobacco seem desirable and more importantly, cool, savvy big tobacco marketers are trying out a new idea that makes smoking not only cool but hands-on.

Jamaica has always been a country with prevalent smoking rates but now it will serve as a sort of test market to a new product: roll your own tobacco stores. U-Roll’em is a new type of smoke shop opened in Jamaica in which shoppers go in, choose their own tobacco (flavor, consistency, boldness, etc.) and make their own signature type of cigarette or cigar. The idea is to allow smokers to customize their habit to their tastes and, in the process, makes the act of buying tobacco a much more personal experience than going into a corner store and buying the same exact pack as everyone else. It’s pretty easy to see the appeal this sort of business would have to smokers.

These new, roll-your-own tobacco stores are owned and operated by an American couple living in Florida and although the business is currently exclusive to the Caribbean, this could hit much closer to home soon. The couple currently has plans to open U-Roll’em’s in 29 Caribbean countries and with enough success we could see something similar stateside in the not-too-distant future.

Making smoking more personal could be a dangerous reaction to the countless American laws that have continuously pushed the habit in the opposite direction for years. The roll-your-own stores have been doing well in the islands, how would they go over here?