Free Republic

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has signed a bill that bans the use of smokeless tobacco products at all ticketed baseball stadiums, sports arenas and recreation areas. De Blasio signed the bill Wednesday. He said the legislation was important to the health of baseball players and the people of New York. The City Council approved the legislation last month by a vote of 44-3. It was sponsored by Council Member Corey Johnson. …

An anti-meat activist group is urging owners of a minor-league baseball team to “stop glorifying bacon” via its bacon-themed uniform, merchandise and “smell the change” slogan. PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) has erected a billboard a mile from the Allentown Iron Pigs’ ballpark, comparing bacon to cigarettes and declaring: “Keep Kids Safe: Ban Bacon from Ballparks.” […] It also evokes the cigarette analogy: “The team would never pass out free cartons of cigarettes to the children of the LeHigh Valley, yet they are providing open access to bacon crumbles and turning a family-friendly event into a public health crisis.”...

Thousands are losing their jobs and new skyscrapers are scratching around for tenants, but judging only by its baseball, no-one would know that New York is gripped by recession. Citi Field stadium Two of the most expensive stadiums in American history will open this week, in a lavish £1.7 billion facelift for the Yankees and the Mets, New York's two major league teams. Planned in more affluent times, the replacement of the landmark Shea and old Yankee stadiums with buildings designed to pamper corporate customers has angered fans and non-fans alike. The projects received hundreds of millions of dollars of...