Feature by Allison Brandow "Big League Chew isn't quite like Cracker Jacks, but hopefully it will be." -- Rob Nelson

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Features | Send mail to The Voice Baseball Bubblegum a Success for Inventor Since production began 25 years ago, Wrigley has added five new flavors to the lineup: sour cherry, wild pitch watermelon, swingin' sour apple, slammin' strawberry and curveball cotton candy. --Product package Step into Rob Nelson's office. Take a look around while he finds a place for you to sit. Glance at the books that cover the walls. Go ahead, pick one out. Mr. Nelson won't mind. Maybe "How the Cadillac Got Its Fins," or "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Are those Starbucks bears on top of the bookshelves? Now he's got a place for you to sit. Lean back in the wooden chair and enjoy the conversation. Mr. Nelson is an inventor and has been ever since the late '70s when his first idea took flight. That idea was Big League Chew, "The Ballplayers' Bubble Gum." The year: 1977. The place: Civic Stadium in Portland, Ore. The Portland Mavericks, a minor league baseball team, were playing one of the final games of the season. Some of the most important action was not out on the baseball field but in the bullpen where Mr. Nelson and player Jim Bouton sat watching teammates spit tobacco juice. Mr. Nelson said, "I've had an idea for a long time to shred gum so that we could look as cool as those guys without doing anything unhealthy." Mr. Bouton liked the idea: shredded bubble gum in a pouch. It would look like tobacco and come in a package like tobacco, but it would be healthier and more fun. "Do you have a name for that idea?" Mr. Bouton asked. "I have a few names," Mr. Nelson said, "but the one I like best is Big League Chew." Mr. Nelson and Mr. Bouton became partners. Mr. Nelson made a sample batch of the gum, and Mr. Bouton presented the samples to different candy companies. Five companies turned them down before Amurol Confections, a subsidiary of Wrigley, bought the idea in 1979. "I made the first batch myself," Mr. Nelson said. "I found a kit, 'How to Make Your Own Bubble Gum.' And I made it on Feb. 6. The reason I remember that [date] is because it's Babe Ruth's birthday." 1980 marked the first full year of production for Big League Chew. The gum attracted customers for the same reasons that Mr. Nelson and Mr. Bouton had produced it: It was fun and healthy. Celebrating 25 years last month, Big League Chew is still attracting customers. Sales amount to about $10 million each year. "Big League Chew isn't quite like Cracker Jacks, but hopefully it will be," Mr. Nelson said. Mr. Nelson has always loved baseball. At age 13 he ran a league for children in his neighborhood. After earning degrees in philosophy and elementary education, Mr. Nelson taught in New York. "My first real job was teaching first grade," Mr. Nelson said, "and that's probably why I still have a lot of little boy in me." Mr. Nelson didn't stay away from baseball for long. He began to pitch in the minor leagues and as a pitcher for the Portland Mavericks launched his idea for Big League Chew. Mr. Nelson stopped playing in the minor leagues after the 1977 season because he could not pitch fast enough. He searched for other ways to be involved with the sport, though. Foreign teams attracted him, and he spent time playing in Australia, England and South Africa. He occasionally returns to South Africa to play with a team there. Mr. Nelson coaches during the summer at a baseball camp he started in New York. The camp has been going for almost 20 years. "I think one of the reasons that the camp has been successful is we keep things very simple and very playful," he said. After Mr. Nelson left the minor leagues in 1977, he began working for The Jugs Company, a company located in Tualatin, Ore., that manufactures baseball pitching machines. He worked as a salesman. Collaborating with Butch Paulson, the owner's son, he developed two machines: the Jugs softball machine and the Jugs 101 machine. "It does one or two things very, very well," Mr. Nelson said. Mr. Nelson still works as a consultant for Jugs. He writes the annual newsletter and assists with developing new machines. "He's quite a character," said Nancy Gonzales, a co-worker at Jugs. Becky Richmond, who works in sales, said, "Sometime within the first couple months of starting here, I saw him walk past here in his robe -- a white terrycloth robe -- with his hair all wet just out of the shower." Mr. Nelson, 56, married his wife, Sarah, in 1994. They met at a diner in Portland where she worked as a waitress. She eventually asked Mr. Nelson if he would go out with her on a date. They now have three children: 5-year-old Paige and 1-year-old twins, Charlie and Jane. Mr. Nelson has another goal in life: to perfect Bollox, a board game he invented. "I've been working on this board game for about a dozen years now," he said. "My wife says to me, 'Why do you keep working on this?' I say, 'Well, if it were easy, everybody would be doing it.' It's not easy." Bollox is played with black and white marbles on a wooden board. The object of the game is to line up five marbles in a row by placing them on the grooved board by turn. "Eventually, everyone will have one of my games in their house," Mr. Nelson said. "I think it will be the checkers of the new millennium." Rob Nelson invented Big League Chew. --Allison Brandow, photo Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Features | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2005 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.