Big League Chew - Original

Big League Chew Original: Background & Overview

Big League Chew (Original) is a shredded bubble gum that comes in a foil pouch designed to look exactly like a chewing tobacco pouch. It’s made by Ford Gum & Machine Company in Akron, New York, under license from Big League Chew Properties (Rob Nelson’s company). It’s an American original, sold at ballparks, grocery stores, and candy shops across the country. It’s also the official bubble gum of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It is, in the humble opinion of the Bubble Bunch, one of the greatest bubble gums ever made with high scores across the board.

The Big League Chew Story

In 1977, Rob Nelson was a left-handed pitcher for the Portland Mavericks, minor league baseball team. One evening in the bullpen at Civic Stadium, Nelson and his teammate Jim Bouton (a former New York Yankees All-Star who had written the baseball memoir Ball Four) were watching younger players spit tobacco juice on each other’s white cleats.

Nelson turned to Bouton and floated the idea he’d been carrying around since childhood: shredded bubble gum, packaged in a pouch just like tobacco, so kids and players could get in on the tabacco ritual without the nicotine. Bouton’s response was immediate: “I love that idea, and more importantly, I could sell that idea.” (OPB)

There was one other person involved: a guy named Todd Field, the 13-year-old Mavericks batboy who helped bring the concept to life. Field would go on to become an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker. But before any of that, on February 6th, 1979, which happens to be Babe Ruth’s birthday, the three of them gathered at Field’s house and made the very first batch by hand. They baked bubble gum base in a kitchen oven, shredded it into strings with a pizza cutter, and stuffed it into a foil pouch. (Big League Chew)

Bouton pitched it to Wrigley, who licensed it through their Amurol Products division. Big League Chew hit shelves in May 1980. In its first year, it was a “home run,” ringing up $18 million in wholesale sales, about 8% of the entire bubble gum market! After two years, it cleared $27 million and has never really slowed down.

As of 2023, Big League Chew has sold over one billion pouches. Ford Gum in Akron still pumps out 100,000 pouches a day. The brand has partnered with MLB players over the years like Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp and Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels. In 2023, Big League Chew added USA Baseball as an official partner. It’s not just a candy. At this point, Big League Chew is a piece of American baseball history.

Our Big League Chew Original Review

Big League Chew Original earned a perfect score from all four Bubble Bunch testers. Every single one gave it 5 out of 5 on taste, with the team mentioning that it has an ideal bubble gum flavor. The texture? 5 out of 5. The bubbles? Two softball-sized and two football-or-bigger. Two of our four reviewers independently named it the best bubble gum they’ve ever tried.

So what makes it so good?

Start with the texture. Every tester described it as “just right;” soft and pliable from the moment you put it in your mouth, no hard start, no breaking-in period. It doesn’t stick to your face. It chews exactly like bubble gum should chew, and that sounds simple until you realize how many gums fail at it.

Then there’s the flavor. It’s the classic pink bubble gum taste, just how bubble gum is supposed to taste. One tester called it “excellent and classic.” Another said it “seems to last forever.” Duration ranged from 12 to nearly 20 minutes depending on how much you put in.

And that’s the key variable: the serving size. The official serving is small — about 3 grams — and with that you’ll get a softball-sized bubble, easy. But load up to 6 grams or more and things get serious. “If you double up the serving, you can really let em rip,” one tester wrote. Football-sized bubbles were consistently achieved.

The one thing anyone could complain about: the packaging. The foil pouch is great for keeping the gum fresh, but it’s bulky and doesn’t slip into a pocket the way a stick pack does. For a gum this good, that’s a small price to pay.

If you want the full rundown on where Big League Chew lands in the overall rankings, check out our best bubble gum page.

Bonus Info

The Rob Nelson Interview

The inventor of Big League Chew is still out there telling the story, and it’s worth 10 minutes of your time. Here’s Rob Nelson himself:

The 1982 Commercial

Two years in, already a phenomenon. This early ad captures exactly the energy the brand was going for: