Tony Gwynn's Family Sues Tobacco Industry Over His Death

Tony Gwynn died of salivary gland cancer in 2014, a disease he believed he acquired thanks to years of using smokeless tobacco. His family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court on Monday, claiming the Hall of Famer was manipulated into the addiction that wound up killing him.

The suit was filed against Altria Group, Inc. (formerly known as Philip Morris) and several other defendants accused of “inducing Gwynn to begin using smokeless tobacco” during his college years at San Diego State University.

Gwynn used the product from 1977 to 2008, sometimes consuming up to two cans per day. The suit claims that’s the equivalent of four to five packs of cigarettes each day for 31 years.

As someone who grew up watching Gwynn play for the San Diego Padres and ran into him around town hundreds of times, I never saw him without chewing tobacco in his lip during his playing career.

The New York Times sums up the grounds for the suit in the following terms:

"“There are no damages specified in the complaint, which asks for a jury trial on grounds of negligence, fraud and product liability. Essentially, the complaint says that Gwynn, while in college, was the victim of a scheme to get him, a rising star athlete, addicted to smokeless tobacco, while knowing the dangers it posed to him. The suit said the industry was undergoing a determined effort at the time to market its products to African-Americans, and that Gwynn was a ‘marketing dream come true’ for the defendants.”"

Gwynn was just 54 years old when he passed away, and his family claims he never drank or smoked and had no idea how addictive smokeless tobacco was when he began using it. Gwynn’s son, Anthony Jr., wife Alicia Gwynn and daughter Anisha Gwynn-Jones are all named as plaintiffs in the suit.

Gwynn wound up campaigning against smokeless tobacco after his first brush with cancer in 2010. A number of cities with major league teams have since banned the substance and the movement continues to grow. Hopefully Major League Baseball will eventually ban smokeless tobacco altogether.