Still Quit – My HOF Speech

Wow! 100 days. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of any accomplishment in my life than this. But it sure took a hell of a lot of faith, dedication and pain to get here…

Like most everyone else here, my dip journey began on my beloved baseball diamond. Decided to give it a shot. Only it wasn’t dip, it was Red Man Golden Blend. It was my junior year of high school and what I remember most was that after the game, I had to pull over when driving home to throw up. Had to lie to my mom on what was wrong with me.

I was fortunate enough to continue to play baseball at the college level. Ironically enough though, I never put that shit in my mouth again until years later. I was 27 and a co-worker offered me some Cope. This time, I loved the buzz and started chasing it ever since. Skoal flavored chew (Citrus) was my fave. Too much of a puss to do the straight stuff. Eventually it became about a 3 can a week habit for me.

What I loved about dip. It took the edge off. I loved that first #2 of the day during my morning dip. I loved the burn on my raw gums. God how I loved the post-coitus dip. In my misogynist days I would rush away from whatever girl I was banging at the time just to hit the Kwik-e-mart so I can get my dip on. I would even ignore the Mrs after the big O and go in the living room bottle in hand…Idiot.

Fast forward 7 years and I have the worst ulcer on my lower gum. I loved it because I could just put the Skoal there and relish the burn. THAT’S when I realized that I needed to quit but for real this time. Took every can in the house and dumped it. Went to Rite-Aid and bought some Nicorette. Went on the web and instead of looking for porn, looked for help to quit dipping. Found KTC and read stories and looked at horrendous pics of what would happen to me. Didn’t think it would be necessary to post daily at first. Then I realized that this was part of the process. I’m a drug addict and this is my support group.

Josh Hamilton (Texas Rangers Outfielder) is my favorite baseball player. In his book he talks about how he quit crack cold turkey. I thought if he could do this with crack, then Nicotine will be a breeze. How wrong could I be…I got the shakes, sweats, I couldn’t sleep. I might as well have been kicking Heroin. My first 2 days I was on the gum then I realized that this was a crutch and so I gave the gum to a smoker buddy of mine and started the count to 100 days.

Was welcomed by Chewie first. Thank you Chewie.
Klark was my first wing. Thanks Klark.
Helios challenged me to post daily and be serious about the quit. Thanks Helios.
Kendall rode the bus with me daily and offered to be a wing. Thanks kendall.
Jstreet was the bounty hunter of the group. He made sure I never missed roll. TY street.
Ricko offered to join on my wing. Thanks Ricko.
Dr. Bruce Banner congratulated me on day 35. Thanks. Remind me not to make you angry.
Tcope congratulated me yesterday on making the HOF. Thanks cope.

I apologize for the dissertation. But I didn’t do this alone. I prayed every night during ‘The Suck’ for God to take this out of my system and eventually He did it. He’s the Captain, I’m just the co-pilot and all of you joined on my wing and we flew this journey together. Thank you KTC for helping me do what I couldn’t do on my own. This is my HOF speech and I am truly humble

Alex

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan.org forum member Rook