A couple of 'reads' to get ready for opening day

First, from the New York Times' Disunion series, here's a good column on baseball, in its multiple varieties, striving to separate itself from cricket and gain popularity at the start of the Civil War.

It's interesting, given the number of Southern players at the time modern professional baseball took off, after the start of the World Series, how little popularity baseball had south of the Mason-Dixon Line in 1861.

Second, here's former MLB player and manager Bobby Valentine, wondering in a NYT op-ed if it ain't about time to get chewing and snuff tobacco out of MLB dugouts. In the wake of Tony Gwynn and his recent grueling recovery from oral cancer, it's timely indeed.

I agree, by the way. Let's have players set a better example. And a cleaner one.