Big League Chew

Big League Chew
	Outta' Here Original variety Big League Chew
Product type	Bubble gum
Owner	Ford Gum
Country	United States
Introduced	May 1980; 41 years ago
Previous owners	Wrigley Company
Tagline	"The Hall of Fame Bubble Gum"
Website	www.bigleaguechew.com

Big League Chew is a brand of bubble gum. It was created by Portland Mavericks left-handed pitcher Rob Nelson and bat boy Todd Field^[1] then pitched to the Wrigley Company (longtime owners of the Chicago Cubs) by fellow Maverick and former New York Yankee All-Star Jim Bouton as a fun imitation of the tobacco-chewing habit common among ballplayers in the 1970s. Over 800 million pouches of Big League Chew have been sold since 1980.^[2]^[3] Big League Chew was introduced in May 1980, in the traditional pink color already seen in established brands of bubble gum. The cartoony packaging, originally designed by artist Bill Mayer, comes in flashy colors such as neon green (for their sour apple flavor) and bright purple (grape flavor). The original shredded R&D concept samples of the product were actually produced by running standard sheets of bubble gum through a standard office paper shredder.

Currently, it is manufactured in the US by Ford Gum & Machine Company in Akron, NY, after taking over distribution rights from Wrigley and moving production from Mexico at the end of 2010.^[4]

The original advertising slogan throughout the 1980s, which is still featured today, was, "You're in the big leagues when you're into Big League Chew!" It currently bills itself as "The Hall of Fame Bubble Gum," bearing an official endorsement from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Notes[]

^ "The Battered Bastards of Baseball: The unlikely heroes of the Portland Mavericks". CBC. October 27, 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
^ foxsports (May 5, 2015). "Big League Chew: An Oral History". www.foxsports.com. Fox Sports Interactive Media, LLC. Archived from the original on 2019-04-09. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
^ John Notarianni (April 13, 2019). "The Birth Of A Bubblegum Empire: Big League Chew's Unlikely Portland Origin". www.opb.org. Oregon Public Broadcasting. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
^ Fink, James (October 19, 2010). "Ford Gum bites into Big League Chew". Business First. Buffalo. Archived from the original on 23 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-19.

External links[]

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[1] "The Battered Bastards of Baseball: The unlikely heroes of the Portland Mavericks". CBC. October 27, 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2019.

[Fox_Sports_-_Just_a_bit_Outside-2] xsports (May 5, 2015). "Big League Chew: An Oral History". www.foxsports.com. Fox Sports Interactive Media, LLC. Archived from the original on 2019-04-09. Retrieved 19 April 2019.

[Oregon_Public_Broadcasting_-_The_Birth_Of_A_Bubblegum_Empire-3] John Notarianni (April 13, 2019). "The Birth Of A Bubblegum Empire: Big League Chew's Unlikely Portland Origin". www.opb.org. Oregon Public Broadcasting. Retrieved 19 April 2019.

[blcmove-4] Fink, James (October 19, 2010). "Ford Gum bites into Big League Chew". Business First. Buffalo. Archived from the original on 23 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-19.

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