Superstitions...and baseball

You better believe it. At some schools if your shoes aren't shined...you ain't playin'

 

More like rituals.....

In HS, used to go to shower before I took the court. And in warmups, unlike most players, I liked to miss the last shot I took. Felt like that would be the last shot I missed all night.

Now, when my son pitches, I will put in a dip of skoal before the game and if he is throwing well, I will keep it in the whole game. If he gets in trouble, I will take it out and put in a new one. Had one dip quite a few times and went thru boxes other times.

 

I remember watching a game not long ago between a couple of summer league college wood bat teams. The one team couldn't do a thing at the plate. I noticed the bats were crossed on the fence & mentioned that I knew what the problem was. This team was at bat. A player heard me, uncrossed the bats and that very instant they started hitting and scored several runs, took the lead and won the game. I asked one of the players if he believed in not crossing bats now and he said "hell yes." Funny thing is the 13 year old bat boy didn't believe a word of it.

Baseball players are the most superstitious people on earth.

 

Never touch home plate during pre-game. If you do you'll never touch it during the game.

 

Superstitions

Crossed bats were a definite no-no. Our state championship year in '93 a buddy of mine had to sing "Blue Moon" on the bus as we pulled into the field at an away game. I'm not sure what started that one. One more that was kind of passed down through the years to us at Cherryville was the birds. Birds flying over the baseball field at home were always a good sign. If you saw birds fly across, something good was about to happen.

 

I always sit on the same bucket in the same spot for home games. As a player I always slept with my bat the night before a game so it wouldn't feel like a "stranger" at the dish. I never step on the line before the national anthem or when making a visit. I use the same pen to make out the line-up during a winning streak. I wear the same socks and underwear on game day, but I will wash them on off days! I have many pre-game quirks that are more rituals than superstitions. I'm not superstitious in any other aspect of life except baseball!
On a related note, a team must appease the baseball gods by not walking leadoff batters in an inning and always hitting the cutoff man, and always getting an out on a sac bunt by the other team. If not, the punishment is the big inning allowed, usually on a KOD (kiss of death). This is a two-out bloop by a LH hitter on the LF line on a perfect pitch at the knees on the outside black, with two or three runners on. Even if you're up big in the middle innings, a team can't overcome a KOD shot predestined by the baseball gods due to committing one of the cardinal sins I just described. And if we get a KOD for us, we'll win the game, no matter the score at the time.