Former Chicago Cub outfieler Moises Alou seen here trying to make a catch but fan Steve Bartman made contact with the ball first during game 6 of the NLCS playoffs on Oct 14, 2003 at Wrigley Field. Alou said one of his superstitions before games was to pee in his hands to help build calluses to get a better grip on the bat. (photo from ChicagoTribune)
Baseball Superstitions are how you spell Relief
That’s Amaury News and Commentary:
By Amaury Pi-González
In a game where the overwhelming majority of players fail to accomplish what they set their minds to, there is some kind of “relief” for the mind. That relief comes in the form of Superstitions. A .333 average means the player gets a hit roughly once every 3 at-bats. Legendary Hall of Fame players like Eddie Collins and Paul Wagner played in the Major Leagues for decades, both hit for a lifetime .333 average, and failed most of the time at the plate.
Superstitions aren’t limited to hitters or pitchers, but since the mind game is mostly between the two (the interaction is always with the pitcher throwing the ball to a hitter while everybody else stands still), here are some famous players I have met and watched play who resort to superstitions.
Luis Tiant. During my conversations with Tiant, he always smiled when I brought up the topic of his “Supersticiones,” and he took them seriously. I think “El Tiante” had many of these unexplainable things. 1-Always arrived at the park dressed in white. 2-Would smoke a good Cuban cigar all the time prior to the game. 3-Always had a solid gold chain around his neck, as he and his good friend pitcher Miguel Cuellar were devoted Catholics. To me, Tiant was funny most of the time, and as a Cuban-born myself, and not superstitious, I came to understand it as the mindset of a player making his living in one of the toughest sports in the world.
Dagoberto Blanco (Campy) Campaneris, also born in Cuba like Luis Tiant, became the first major leaguer to play all nine positions in a single game. His superstition was truly unique. But if you think all Cuban players are superstitious, you are wrong; Campaneris was not. The closest Campy came to that was in 1972, when he and his teammates all grew facial hair and then went on a big winning streak; that same year, the A’s won the World Series, his first of three in a row, under the incomparable owner Charles O Finley.
Baseball fans know many players and their superstitions; some have nothing to do with the play on the field, like Wade Boggs, the “Chicken Man,” who ate fried chicken before every single game for good luck and even published a book in 1984 titled “Fowl Tips”. No, Wade Boggs never did a commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Colonel Sanders appeared in his own commercials back then; he did not like to spend money.
Few others worth mentioning:
-Turk Wendell, a reliever who brushed his teeth in between innings.
-Justin Verlander, future Hall of Fame pitcher, ordered the same Taco Bell meal before every start. No, he never did any advertising for Taco Bell.
-Sandy Koufax had the same-day superstition of not shaving on the day scheduled to pitch; his teammate Don Drysdale did the same.
-Moisés Alou told me during a pre-game interview with the Giants that he peed on his hands to build calluses to improve his grip with his hands and did not use batting gloves. I do not know if that was superstitious, but it was one of the most unusual things a player ever told me, so I listed it here. I have written about this as a member of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research),I have never heard any other player do this “ritual.”
Quote: I have only one superstition: “touch all the bases when I hit a home run”. -Babe Ruth
Amaury Pi-Gonzalez – Cuban-born Pi-González is one of the pioneers of Spanish-language baseball play-by-play in America. Began as Oakland A’s Spanish-language voice in 1977 ending in 2024 (interrupted by stops with the Giants, Mariners and Angels). Voice of the Golden State Warriors from 1992 through 1998. 2010 inducted in the Bay Area Radio Hall of fame.
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