Baseball Magic

Article 32 Baseball Magic George Gmelch On each pitching day for the first three baseball is more than just a game. It is an glove, whistle past a fielder’s diving stab, months of a winning season, Dennis occupation. Since their livelihoods de- or find a gap in the outfield. The uncer- Grossini, a pitcher on a Detroit Tiger farm pend on how well they perform, many use tainty is compounded by the low success team, arose from bed at exactly 10:00 a.m. magic to try to control the chance that is rate of hitting: the average hitter gets only At 1:00 p.m. he went to the nearest res- built into baseball. There are three essen- one hit in every four trips to the plate, taurant for two glasses of iced tea and a tial activities of the game—pitching, hit- while the very best hitters average only tuna sandwich. Although the afternoon ting, and fielding. In the first two, chance one hit every three trips. Fielding, as we was free, he changed into the sweatshirt can play a surprisingly important role. will return to later, is the one part of base- and supporter he wore during his last win- The pitcher is the player least able to con- ball where chance does not play much of ning game, and, one hour before the trol the outcome of his own efforts. He a role. game, he chewed a wad of Beech-Nut may feel great and have good stuff warm- How does the risk and uncertainty in chewing tobacco. After each pitch during ing up in the bullpen and then get into the pitching and hitting affect players? How the game he touched the letters on his uni- game and not have it. He may make a bad do they try to exercise control over the form and straightened his cap after each pitch and see the batter miss it for a strike outcomes of their performance? These ball. Before the start of each inning he re- out or see it hit hard but right into the are questions that I first became interested placed the pitcher’s resin bag next to the hands of a fielder for an out. His best pitch in many years ago as both a ballplayer and spot where it was the inning before. And may be blooped for a base hit. He may an anthropology student. I’d devoted after every inning in which he gave up a limit the opposing team to just a few hits much of my youth to baseball, and played run, he washed his hands. yet lose the game, or he may give up a professionally as first baseman in the De- When asked which part of the ritual dozen hits but still win. And the good and troit Tigers organization in the 1960s. It was most important, he said, “You can’t bad luck don’t always average out over was shortly after the end of one baseball really tell what’s most important so it all the course of a season. Some pitchers end season that I took an anthropology course becomes important. I’d be afraid to the season with poor won-loss records but called “Magic, Religion, and Witch- change anything. As long as I’m winning, good earned run averages, and vice versa. craft.” As I listened to my professor de- I do everything the same.” For instance, this past season Andy Benes scribe the magical rituals of the Trobriand Trobriand Islanders, according to an- gave up over one run per game more than Islanders, it occurred to me that what thropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, felt his teammate Omar Daal but had a better these so-called “primitive” people did the same way about their fishing magic. won-loss record. Benes went 14–13, wasn’t all that different from what my Among the Trobrianders, fishing took while Daal was only 8–12. Both pitched teammates and I did for luck and confi- two forms: in the inner lagoon where fish for the same team—the Arizona Dia- dence at the ball park. were plentiful and there was little danger, mondbacks—which meant they had the and on the open sea where fishing was same fielders behind them. Regardless of ROUTINES AND RITUALS dangerous and yields varied widely. Ma- how well a pitcher performs, on every linowski found that magic was not used in outing he depends not only on his own The most common way players attempt to lagoon fishing, where men could rely skill, but also upon the proficiency of his reduce chance and their feelings of uncer- solely on their knowledge and skill. But teammates, the ineptitude of the opposi- tainty is to develop and follow a daily rou- when fishing on the open sea, Trobrian- tion, and luck. tine, a course of action which is regularly ders used a great deal of magical ritual to Hitting, which many observers call the followed. Talking about the routines ball- ensure safety and increase their catch. single most difficult task in the world of players follow, Pirates coach Rich Don- Baseball, America’s national pastime, sports, is also full of risk and uncertainty. nelly said: is an arena in which players behave re- Unless it’s a home run, no matter how markably like Malinowski’s Trobriand well the batter hits the ball, fate deter- They’re like trained animals. They fishermen. To professional ballplayers, mines whether it will go into a waiting come out here [ballpark] and ev- 1 ANNUAL EDITIONS erything has to be the same, they each win. Clanging against the hard plas- fore every at bat, and a few like the Rang- don’t like anything that knocks tic genital cup, the pennies made a noise ers’ Pudge Rodriguez do so before every them off their routine. Just look at as he ran the bases toward the end of a pitch. Others, like the Detroit Tiger Juan the dugout and you’ll see every winning season. Glenn Davis would chew Gonzalez, also visibly wear religious me- guy sitting in the same spot every the same gum every day during hitting dallions around their necks, while some night. It’s amazing, everybody in streaks, saving it under his cap. Infielder tuck them discretely inside their under- the same spot. And don’t you dare Julio Gotay always played with a cheese shirts. take someone’s seat. If a guy sandwich in his back pocket (he had a big One ritual associated with hitting is comes up from the minors and sits appetite, so there might also have been a tagging a base when leaving and returning here, they’ll say, ‘Hey, Jim sits measure of practicality here). Wade to the dugout between innings. Some here, find another seat.’ You watch Boggs ate chicken before every game dur- players don’t “feel right” unless they tag the pitcher warm up and he’ll do ing his career, and that was just one of a specific base on each trip between the the same thing every time. And dozens of elements in his pre and post dugout and the field. One of my team- when you go on the road it’s the game routine, which also included leav- mates added some complexity to his ritual same way. You’ve got a routine ing his house for the ballpark at precisely by tagging third base on his way to the and you adhere to it and you don’t the same time each day (1:47 for a 7:05 dugout only after the third, sixth, and want anybody knocking you off it. game). Former Oriole pitcher Dennis ninth innings. Asked if he ever purposely Martinez would drink a small cup of water failed to step on the bag, he replied, Routines are comforting, they bring after each inning and then place it under “Never! I wouldn’t dare. It would destroy order into a world in which players have the bench upside down, in a line. His my confidence to hit.” Baseball fans ob- little control. And sometimes practical el- teammates could always tell what inning serve a lot of this ritual behavior, such as ements in routines produce tangible ben- it was by counting the cups. fielders tagging bases, pitchers tugging efits, such as helping the player Many hitters go through a series of pre- on their caps or touching the resin bag af- concentrate. But what players often do paratory rituals before stepping into the ter each bad pitch, or smoothing the dirt goes beyond mere routine. Their actions batter’s box. These include tugging on on the mound before each new batter or become what anthropologists define as their caps, touching their uniform letters inning, never realizing the importance of ritual—prescribed behaviors in which or medallions, crossing themselves, tap- these actions to the player. The one ritual there is no empirical connection between ping or bouncing the bat on the plate, or many fans do recognize, largely because the means (e.g., tapping home plate three swinging the weighted warm-up bat a pre- it’s a favorite of TV cameramen, is the times) and the desired end (e.g., getting a scribed number of times. Consider Red “rally cap”—players in the dugout fold- base hit). Because there is no real connec- Sox Nomar Garciaparra. After each pitch ing their caps and wearing them bill up in tion between the two, rituals are not ra- he steps out of the batters box, kicks the hopes of sparking a rally.

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