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Home , Batting glove, Jack Clark (baseball), Julio Gotay, Losing streak, Rally cap, Slump (sports)

Article 32

Baseball Magic

George Gmelch

On each pitching day for the first three is more than just a . It is an , whistle past a fielder’s diving stab, months of a winning season, Dennis occupation. Since their livelihoods de- or find a gap in the . The uncer- Grossini, a 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 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- 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 during ing up in the 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 after each pitch and see the batter miss it for a strike outcomes of their performance? These ball. Before the start of each he re- 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 , he washed his hands. yet lose the game, or he may give up a professionally as 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 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 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 . most difficult task in the world of players follow, Pirates coach Rich Don- Baseball, America’s national pastime, , is also full of risk and uncertainty. nelly said: is an arena in which players behave re- Unless it’s a , 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 , 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 and you’ll see every winning season. 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 . 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 of pre- on their 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 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 . 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. tional, and sometimes they are actually dirt with each toe, adjusts his right Most rituals grow out of exceptionally irrational. Similar to rituals are the non- glove, adjusts his left , and good performances. When a player does rational beliefs that form the basis of ta- touches his before getting back well, he seldom attributes his success to boos and fetishes, which players also use into the box. Mike Hargrove, former skill alone. He knows that his skills were to reduce chance and bring luck to their Cleveland Indian first baseman, had so essentially the same the night before. He side. But first let’s look more closely at many time consuming elements in his bat- asks himself, “What was different about rituals. ting ritual that he was known as “the hu- today which explains my three hits?” He Most rituals are personal, that is, man rain delay.” Both players believe decides to repeat what he did today in an they’re performed by individuals rather their batting rituals helped them regain attempt to bring more good luck. And so than by a team or group. Most are done in their concentration after each pitch. But he attributes his success, in part, to an ob- an unemotional manner, in much the others wonder if they have become pris- ject, a food he ate, not having shaved, a same way players apply pine tar to their oners of their own superstitions. Also, new shirt he bought that day, or just about bats to improve the grip or dab eye black players who have too many or particularly any behavior out of the ordinary. By re- on their upper cheeks to reduce the sun’s bizarre rituals risk being labeled as peating that behavior, he seeks to gain glare. Baseball rituals are infinitely var- “flakes,” and not just by teammates but by control over his performance. Outfielder ied. A ballplayer may ritualize any activ- fans and media as well. For example, John White explained how one of his rit- ity—eating, dressing, driving to the pitcher Turk Wendell’s eccentric rituals, uals started: ballpark—that he considers important or which included wearing a necklace of somehow linked to good performance. teeth from animals he had killed, made I was jogging out to centerfield af- For example, Yankee pitcher Denny Nea- him a cover story in the New York Times ter the national anthem when I gle goes to a movie on days he is sched- Sunday Magazine. picked up a scrap of paper. I got uled to start. Pitcher Jason Bere listens to Some players, especially Latin Amer- some good hits that night and I the same song on his Walkman on the icans, draw upon rituals from their Ro- guess I decided that the paper had days he is to pitch. Jim Ohms puts another man Catholic religion. Some make the something to do with it. The next penny in the pouch of his supporter after sign of the cross or bless themselves be- night I picked up a gum wrapper

2 Article 32. Baseball Magic

and had another good night at the meaning prohibition. Breaking a taboo, FETISHES plate… I’ve been picking up paper players believe, leads to undesirable con- every night since. sequences or bad luck. Most players ob- Fetishes or charms are material objects serve at least a few taboos, such as never believed to embody “supernatural” power that can aid or protect the owner. Outfielder Ron Wright of the Calgary stepping on the white foul lines. A few, Good luck charms are standard equip- Cannons shaves his arms once a week and like the Mets Turk Wendell and Red Sox ment for some ballplayers. These include plans to continue doing so until he has a Nomar Garciaparra, leap over the entire a wide assortment of objects from coins, bad year. It all began two years before basepath. One teammate of mine would chains, and crucifixes to a favorite base- when after an injury he shaved his arm so never watch a movie on a game day, de- ball . The fetishized object may be a it could be taped, and proceeded to hit spite the fact that we played nearly every new possession or something a player three homers over the next few . day from April to September. Another found that happens to coincide with the Now he not only has one of the smoothest teammate refused to read anything before start of a streak and which he holds re- swings in the minor leagues, but two of a game because he believed it weakened sponsible for his good fortune. While the smoothest forearms. Wade Boggs’ his batting eye. playing in the Pacific Coast League, Alan routine of eating chicken before every Many taboos take place off the field, Foster forgot his baseball shoes on a road game began when he was a rookie in out of public view. On the day a pitcher is trip and borrowed a pair from a teammate. 1982. He noticed a correlation between scheduled to start, he is likely to avoid ac- That night he pitched a no-hitter, which he multiple hit games and poultry plates (his tivities he believes will sap his strength attributed to the shoes. Afterwards he wife has over 40 chicken recipes). One of and detract from his effectiveness. Some bought them from his teammate and they farmhand Mike Sacco- pitchers avoid eating certain foods, others became a fetish. Expo farmhand Mark cio’s rituals also concerned food, “I got will not shave on the day of a game, re- LaRosa’s rock has a different origin and three hits one night after eating at Long fusing to shave again as long as they are use: John Silver’s. After that when we’d pull winning. Early in the 1989 season Oak- into town, my first question would be, land’s had six consecutive “Do you have a Long John Silver’s?” Un- victories and a beard by the time he lost. I found it on the field in Elmira af- like Boggs, Saccocio abandoned his ritual ter I had gotten bombed. It’s un- and looked for a new one when he stopped Taboos usually grow out of exception- usual, perfectly round, and it hitting well. ally poor performances, which players, in caught my attention. I keep it to re- mind me of how important it is to When in a , most players make a search of a reason, attribute to a particular concentrate. When I am going well deliberate effort to change their rituals behavior. During my first season of pro I look at the rock and remember to and routines in an attempt to shake off ball I ate pancakes before a game in which keep my focus, the rock reminds their bad luck. One player tried taking dif- I struck out three times. A few weeks later me of what can happen when I lose ferent routes to the ballpark; several play- I had another terrible game, again after my concentration. ers reported trying different combinations eating pancakes. The result was a pancake of tagging and not tagging particular taboo: I never again ate pancakes during bases in an attempt to find a successful the season. Pitcher Jason Bere has a taboo For one season Marge Schott, former combination. I had one manager who that makes more sense in dietary terms: owner of the , insisted would rattle the bat bin when the team was after eating a meatball sandwich and not that her field manager rub her St. Bernard not hitting well, as if the bats were in a stu- pitching well, he swore off them for the “Schotzie” for good luck before each por and could be aroused by a good shak- rest of the season. game. When the Reds were on the road, ing. Similarly, I have seen hitters rub their While most taboos are idiosyncratic, Schott would sometimes send a bag of the hands along the handles of the bats pro- there are a few that all ball players hold dog’s hair to the field manager’s hotel truding from the bin in hopes of picking and that do not develop out of individual room. up some power or luck from bats that are experience or misfortune. These form During World War II, American sol- getting hits for their owners. Some play- part of the culture of baseball, and are diers used fetishes in much the same way. ers switch from wearing their contact sometimes learned as early as Little Social psychologist Samuel Stouffer and lenses to glasses. Brett Mandel described League. Mentioning a no-hitter while one his colleagues found that in the face of his Pioneer League team, the Ogden Rap- is in progress is a well-known example. It great danger and uncertainty, soldiers de- tors, trying to break a by us- is believed that if a pitcher hears the words veloped magical practices, particularly ing a new formation for their pre-game 1 “no-hitter,” the spell accounting for this the use of protective amulets and good stretching. hard to achieve feat will be broken and the luck charms (crosses, Bibles, rabbits’ no-hitter lost. This taboo is also observed feet, medals), and jealously guarded arti- TABOO by many sports broadcasters, who use cles of clothing they associated with past various linguistic subterfuges to inform experiences of escape from danger.2 Taboos are the opposite of rituals. The their listeners that the pitcher has not Stouffer also found that prebattle prepa- word taboo comes from a Polynesian term given up a hit, never saying “no-hitter.” rations were carried out in fixed ritual-

3 ANNUAL EDITIONS like order, similar to ballplayers prepar- game, for example, ex-Giant infielder Jim Baseball’s superstitions, like most ev- ing for a game. Davenport discovered that he had missed erything else, change over time. Many of Uniform numbers have special signif- a buttonhole while dressing for the game. the rituals and beliefs of early baseball are icance for some players who request their For the remainder of his career he left the no longer observed. In the 1920s and lucky number. Since the choice is usually same button undone. For outfielder Brian 1930s sportswriters reported that a player limited, they try to at least get a uniform Hunter the focus is shoes, “I have a pair of who tripped en route to the field would of- that contains their lucky number, such as high tops and a pair of low tops. Which- ten retrace his steps and carefully walk 14, 24, 34, or 44 for the player whose ever shoes don’t get a hit that game, I over the stumbling block for “insurance.” lucky number is four. When Ricky Hend- switch to the other pair.” At the time of our A century ago players spent time on and erson came to the Blue Jays in 1993 he interview, he was struggling at the plate off the field intently looking for items that paid outfielder Turner Ward $25,000 for and switching shoes almost every day. would bring them luck. To find a hairpin the right to wear number 24. Oddly For Birmingham Baron pitcher Bo on the street, for example, assured a batter enough, there is no consensus about the Kennedy the arrangement of the different of hitting safely in that day’s game. Today effect of wearing number 13. Some play- pairs of baseball shoes in his locker is crit- few women wear hairpins—a good rea- ers will not wear it, others will, and a few ical: son the belief has died out. To catch sight request it. Number preferences emerge in of a white horse or a wagon-load of bar- different ways. A young player may re- I tell the clubies [clubhouse boys] rels were also good omens. In 1904 the quest the number of a former star, hoping when you hang stuff in my locker manager of the New York Giants, John that—through what anthropologists call don’t touch my shoes. If you bump McGraw, hired a driver with a team of imitative magic—it will bring him the them move them back. I want the white horses to drive past the Polo same success. Or he may request a num- Pony’s in front, the turfs to the Grounds around the time his players were ber he associates with good luck. While right, and I want them nice and arriving at the ballpark. He knew that if with the Oakland A’s Vida Blue changed neat with each pair touching each his players saw white horses, they’d have his uniform number from 35 to 14, the other…. Everyone on the team more confidence and that could only help number he wore as a high-school quarter- knows not to mess with my shoes them during the game. Belief in the power back. When 14 did not produce better when I pitch. of white horses survived in a few back- pitching performance, he switched back waters until the 1960s. A gray haired to 35. Former San Diego Padre first base- During streaks—hitting or winning— manager of a team I played for in Drum- man Jack Clark changed his number from players may wear the same clothes day af- mondville, Quebec, would drive around 25 to 00, hoping to break out of a slump. ter day. Once I changed sweatshirts mid- the countryside before important games That day he got four hits in a way through the game for seven and during the playoffs looking for a header, but also hurt his back. Then, three consecutive nights to keep a white horse. When he was successful, he days later, he was hit in the cheekbone by going. Clothing rituals, however, can be- would announce it to everyone in the a ball thrown in batting practice. come impractical. Matt Allen clubhouse. Colorado Rockies Larry Walker’s fix- was wearing a long sleeve turtle neck shirt One belief that appears to have died ation with the number three has become on a cool evening in the New York-Penn out recently is a taboo about crossed bats. well known to baseball fans. Besides League when he had a three-hit game. “I Some of my Latino teammates in the wearing 33, he takes three practice swings kept wearing the shirt and had a good 1960s took it seriously. I can still recall before stepping into the box, he showers week,” he explained. “Then the weather one Dominican player becoming agitated from the third nozzle, sets his alarm for got hot as hell, 85 degrees and muggy, but when another player tossed a bat from the three minutes past the hour and he was I would not take that shirt off. I wore it for and it landed on top of his bat. wed on November 3 at 3:33 p.m. Fans in another ten days—catching—and people He believed that the top bat might steal ballparks all across America rise from thought I was crazy.” Also taking a ritual hits from the lower one. In his view, bats their seats for the seventh inning stretch to the extreme, Leo Durocher, managing contained a finite number of hits, a sort of before the home club comes to bat be- the Brooklyn Dodgers to a in baseball “image of limited good.” It was cause the number seven is lucky, although 1941, is said to have spent three and a half once commonly believed that when the the origin of this tradition has been lost. weeks in the same gray slacks, blue coat, hits in a bat were used up no amount of Clothing, both the choice and the order and knitted blue . During a 16-game good hitting would produce any more. in which they are put on, combine ele- , the 1954 New York Gi- Hall of Famer Honus Wagner believed ments of both ritual and fetish. Some ants wore the same clothes in each game each bat contained only 100 hits. Regard- players put on their uniform in a ritualized and refused to let them be cleaned for fear less of the quality of the bat, he would dis- order. Expos farmhand Jim Austin always that their good fortune might be washed card it after its 100th hit. This belief would puts on his left sleeve, left pants leg, and away with the dirt. Losing often produces have little relevance today, in the era of left shoe before the right. Most players, the opposite effect. Several Oakland A’s light bats with thin handles—so thin that however, single out one or two lucky ar- players, for example, went out and bought the typical modern bat is lucky to survive ticles or quirks of dress for ritual elabo- new street clothes in an attempt to break a a dozen hits without being broken. Other ration. After hitting two home runs in a fourteen-game losing streak. superstitions about bats do survive, how-

4 Article 32. Baseball Magic ever. Position players on the Class A rituals get established in the first place.4 through slumps and good times, for sev- Asheville Tourists, for example, would With a few grains of seed Skinner could enteen years? not let pitchers touch or swing their bats, get pigeons to do anything he wanted. He Obviously the rituals and superstitions not even to warm up. Poor-hitting players, merely waited for the desired behavior of baseball do not make a pitch travel as most pitchers are, were said to pollute (e.g. pecking) and then rewarded it with faster or a find the gaps be- or weaken the bats. some food. Skinner then decided to see tween the fielders, nor do the Trobriand what would happen if pigeons were re- rituals calm the seas or bring fish. What UNCERTAINTY AND warded with food pellets regularly, every both do, however, is give their practitio- MAGIC fifteen seconds, regardless of what they ners a sense of control, with that added did. He found that the birds associate the confidence, at no cost. And we all know The best evidence that players turn to rit- arrival of the food with a particular action, how important that is. If you really be- uals, taboos, and fetishes to control such as tucking their head under a wing or lieve eating chicken or hopping over the chance and uncertainty is found in their walking in clockwise circles. About ten foul lines will make you a better hitter, it uneven application. They are associated seconds after the arrival of the last pellet, probably will. mainly with pitching and hitting—the ac- a bird would begin doing whatever it as- tivities with the highest degree of sociated with getting the food and keep BIBLIOGRAPHY chance—and not fielding. I met only one doing it until the next pellet arrived. In player who had any ritual in connection short, the pigeons behaved as if their ac- Malinowski, B. Magic, Science and Religion with fielding, and he was an prone tions made the food appear. They learned and Other Essays (Glencoe, III., 1948). shortstop. Unlike hitting and pitching, a to associate particular behaviors with the Mandel, Brett. Minor Players, Major Dreams. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Ne- fielder has almost complete control over reward of being given seed. the outcome of his performance. Once a braska Press, 1997. ball has been hit in his direction, no one Ballplayers also associate a reward— Skinner, B.F. Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis (D. Appleton- can intervene and ruin his chances of successful performance—with prior be- Century Co., 1938). catching it for an out (except in the un- havior. If a player touches his crucifix and Skinner, B.F. Science and Human Behavior likely event of two fielders colliding). then gets a hit, he may decide the gesture (New York: Macmillan, 1953). Compared with the pitcher or the hitter, was responsible for his good fortune and Stouffer, Samuel. The American Soldier. the fielder has little to worry about. He touch his crucifix the next time he comes New York: J. Wiley, 1965. knows that, in better than 9.7 times out of to the plate. If he gets another hit, the Torrez, Danielle Gagnon. High Inside: Mem- 10, he will execute his task flawlessly. chances are good that he will touch his oirs of a Baseball Wife. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1983. With odds like that there is little need for crucifix each time he bats. Unlike pi- ritual. geons, however, most ballplayers are NOTES Clearly, the rituals of American ball- quicker to change their rituals once they players are not unlike that of the Trobri- no longer seem to work. Skinner found 1. Mandel, Minor Players, Major Dreams, and Islanders studied by Malinowski that once a pigeon associated one of its ac- 156. many years ago.3 In professional base- tions with the arrival of food or water, 2. Stouffer, The American Soldier ball, fielding is the equivalent of the inner only sporadic rewards were necessary to 3. Malinowski, B. Magic, Science and Re- lagoon while hitting and pitching are like keep the ritual going. One pigeon, believ- ligion and Other Essays the open sea. ing that hopping from side to side brought 4. Skinner, B.F. Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis While Malinowski helps us under- pellets into its feeding cup, hopped ten stand how ballplayers respond to chance thousand times without a pellet before fi- and uncertainty, behavioral psychologist nally giving up. But, then, didn’t Wade Department of Anthropology, Union College; B. F. Skinner sheds light on why personal Boggs eat chicken before every game, e-mail [email protected]

Revised version of "Superstition and Ritual in American Baseball" from Elysian Fields Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 3, 1992, pp. 25-36. © September 2000, McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, with permission of the author, George Gmelch.

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