Baseball superstitions abound for players and managers alike
SAN FRANCISCO Phillies manager Pete Mackanin picks between two pairs of red sneakers based on which ones have been on his feet during hard-to-come-by wins. Brewers catcher Stephen Vogt gets dressed in a specific sequence each day, down to how he pulls on his socks and in what order. Sometimes, Kansas City’s Brandon Moss pretends to be superstitious by going with a good-luck bat.
Oakland manager Bob Melvin rotates between several parking spaces at the Coliseum depending how his club is playing.
“No. 3 is performing pretty well,” he said of his recent go-to spot.
Wade Boggs was known to eat chicken before every game, while Kansas City starter Ian Kennedy has moved past his former need to have breakfast at the same restaurants he frequented through college ball and the minors.
Ahh, superstitions. Baseball is made for them — starting with the most basic of all: Don’t step on the chalk lines.
Nationals pitcher Oliver Perez takes no chances, theatrically leaping over the foul line.
“Just that white line, gotta get over that white line. We all got something,” Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson said, noting if he somehow touched the line, “I’d get nervous, I’d probably cross back over and then come back again.”
From the gold thong Jason Giambi believed would bust any slump, to ex-Detroit skipper Jim Leyland’s well-worn — don’t ask — boxer shorts through a 2011 winning streak, to Ryan Dempster feasting at the same Italian eatery before starts and Roger Clemens visiting the Babe Ruth plaque in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park.
And, of course those bushy, overgrown October beards are a sure sign of the post-season.
“I just find it an individual expressing their individuality,” said Boston outfielder Rajai Davis.
Moss will just fake that he’s superstitious from time to time.
“They’re all wacky to me,” Moss said. “Because I’m not. I pretend like I am but I’m really not. You’ll joke around and say, ‘Oh, this was the lucky bat.’ You know it’s not the bat. … It’s like that thing in Bull Durham if you’re hot because of whatever reason, then you are. If you believe it, then it’s true.”
Vogt, with the Athletics until Milwaukee claimed him off waivers June 25, insists: “Melvin’s one of the most superstitious people I’ve ever met, down to which undershirt he’s wearing, what he wore to the game before, who takes the lineup card out. It’s all a science. Nothing in Oakland happens by accident in that clubhouse.”
Vogt said Melvin will even alter where he stands in the dugout during an inning if the A’s don’t score.
Sometime during the 1981 season in Double-A ball, an overnight envelope arrived from Kevin Rhomberg to Buck Showalter.
It revealed just how deeply superstitious the Cleveland outfielder had become.
“He had a thing about touching you,” recalled Showalter, now Orioles manager. “Like if you would hit Kevin he would have to touch you back. I’m playing first base, I tag him on a pickoff to end the game, I ran off the field. It freaked him out. He led the league in hitting that year. So when I get back home there’s an overnight letter from Kevin Rhomberg. I open it up, it said: ‘Buck, I just want you to know you’ve been retouched by touching this letter.”’
Showalter has his own quirks. He barely eats on game day, a couple of cups of coffee and a banana before a recent Aug. 11 game at Oakland. Then some pieces of gum from the dugout bucket. Whatever seems to work. “After a win people say, ‘Do what you did last night, do whatever you did yesterday,”’ Royals starter Kennedy said. “That’s superstitious.”