Indians’ Lindor’s lucky penny now has company
CLEVELAND — Presuming nothing disturbed it from its special resting place, Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor will have his lucky penny in his pocket tonight for Game 1 of the World Series.
But somewhere in the bowels of Progressive Field — its senders hope in the clubhouse or the dugout — sits a massive jar of about 400 more.
The first penny came in the mail from 7-year-old Mia Starnes, a second-grader at Roosevelt Elementary in McDonald, Ohio. For a class project, teacher Ally Thompson had her 18 students draw names and write letters to the 25 players on the Indians roster. Included in each was a penny for good luck.
“Honestly I didn’t expect anything to come out of it,” Thompson said by phone Monday. “They get fan mail every day. I just figured it was just another letter. My kids were excited to do it. I thought it would be a great opportunity to practice letter writing.”
Starnes used several colors to decorate the outside of her envelope and it caught the eye of Lindor, 22, who tries to keep up with his fan mail.
“I read the letter and she said, ‘Put this penny in your pocket,’” Lindor said Friday. “I was like, ‘All right.’ I love kids. I thought it was the cutest thing. I thank her, she gave me a lot of good luck.”
In Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, Lindor’s two-run homer proved to be all the Indians scored in victory. The shiny copper object was back in his pocket for Game 2, when he drove in the winning run with a single to center field.
“I put it in my pocket every game. Not in practice, not walking around,” Lindor said, pointing to it on the Amazon Echo speaker in between his locker and Tyler Naquin’s.
Multiple television stations and newspapers picked up on the story. Contacted by another Cleveland station for a Monday interview, Starnes, Thompson and principal David Vecchione drove separately to Progressive Field, accompanied by their families. They brought with them a huge jar of pennies. Vecchione said each student brought one to school Monday to be delivered to the Indians.
“We heard they’re very superstitious with pennies; that was the inside scoop we got,” said Vecchione, in his seventh year as Roosevelt Elementary’s principal.
The group hoped they would get to meet Lindor or be taken on a tour of the stadium, but that was not to be. An interview was conducted on the Home Run Porch in left field, and they left right after. A member of the public relations department took their precious jar.
Several hours later, Lindor sounded disappointed to learn that Starnes had been at the park and he didn’t get to see her.
“She put a smile on my face and she put a smile on a lot of people’s faces because of (the) good luck I helped my team,” Lindor said Friday. “She’s making a lot of people happy right now.”
Thompson, a McDonald native and Youngstown State graduate who has taught for 17 years, hopes the Indians know that the jar is from them and not another school. But even though their visit to Cleveland did not go as they’d hoped, Vecchione believes Starnes will never forget the project.
“She meant what she wrote; she believed what she was giving him was going to be good luck,” Vecchione said. “Even though she’s 7, she understands what’s happening now and believes in it. He’s playing real well and talking about what she did. It’s something she’ll remember her whole life.”