Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-08-29
OMENS OF ILL LUCK.
Some Superstitions That Ball Players
Nurse.

Ball players are as surerstitious a.
chorus girls" said the business man
ager Of one Of the american Leagu,
clubs. 'In addition to all the ordinar;
superstitions. they've got a whole batch
OF their own. and they believe in then
implicitly.
They all fall for the thirteen super.
stition. You can't get them to ride in a
bus in which there are only thirteen
men, and they are always very careful
to count noses. too.
I'm the dining-roo:ns Of some Of the
EOtels at which the players stop while
travelling they put all the players a.
one table. It's fun 20 watch them
tagging the thirteenth fellow who
Gomez along TO the table for a meal. II
he doesn't roll his eye around himself
and count the bunch before sitting
down, there are always plenty of them
at the table who will. and if the new
conner makes the thirteenth he ducks
out of the dining-room until he is
Joined by one of the other players, to
make the fourteenth, or waits till one
of the eaters gets through and quits the
table.
Most teams are suparstitious about
having outsiders on the bench, even
during practice. Few of them believe
that they can win game when an out
slider has sat on their bench from the
moment that they arrived at the park.
But the kinky superstitions of the
individual players make TIE queer stuff.
wouldn't go so far as to say that
every player has some odd little pet
notion, but it's a sure thing that not
many Of them are free from these
WITNESSES.
Il know several players. for instance.
who thoroughly believe that when a
game is postponed on account Of rain
or wet grounds on the day they're due
to go in it's simply impossible for them
to win on the next day or the next time
they take their postponed turn.
There's often plain enough answer
to the superstitions of the players. but
they won't see the answer, and just go
right on nursing the superstition. For
example, there's a renowned outfielder
who is positive that every time he gives
himself slight cut with his razor
" lille shaving in the morning he's going
to muff an easy fly ut the game in the
afternoon.
Nov, it seems to me that that's
easily enough explained. When he cuts
himself with his razor in the morning
that shows that he's in nervous state,
perhaps due to excessive travelling or
incautious eating, and he's still ner-
rhar I4 l,f o. ,~sv
the game. But you'd never be able to
make that outfielder see the. connectiop.
He simply knows that the razor cut
presages the muff, and that's all there
is to it SO far as his understanding of
the situation is concerned.
''One of the best backstops in fast
{ Ompany has deadly horror of left
hand barber. He has himself shaved
every morning right after breakfast,
and, as happens three or four times on
the average during the season. wher
he finds he's being scraped by a left
handed barber he relapses into the
most profound melancholy for the re-
mainder of the day. He solemnly af-
firms that he never yet in the course
of sixteen years of playing caught n
game on such a day that he didn':
make holy show of himself by per-
nIiserably ard piling up
stack of passed balls.
Another first-rate catcher has the
superstition that when. in the prog
ress of game. he picks up his mask
after having thrown it off to go aft ar
foul, and involuntarily tries to put the
mask on upside down, his team is just
bound to lose the game. no
matter how big lead the team may
have at the time.
Il understand that women consider
it lucky to get one or both of their
stockings on wrong size out accident
ally, but l know ball player-one of
the crack first basemen-who becomes
pale when he finds that he's put one Of
his socks on that way. He swears that |
every time he gets one of his socks on
wrong side out he is sure to get pulled |
off his sack by thrown ball and miss |
an easy out in the afternoons game, |
nothing will ever make him believe to |
the contrary.
THE great majority Of players be-
ieve that it's bad luck to pick UP any
lat but their own when going up to the |
plate. They always have bats that |
ook alike. notched or otherwise fixed |
up for easy Identification, so that they |
won't pick up the wrong one. to do |
which they believe is to make dead
sure that they'll be whitfield by the |
pitcher. Only when you see a bats
nan about to go up. pick up two bats |
and swing them around can you be |
sure that he isn't possessed of this SUI
-erstition.
Some batsmen that l could mention |
nave achieved the reputation of being |
swell waiters-that is, of being excep- |
ionally patient in waiting for the good |
'nes-who are simply the victims of a |
superstition. They won't take a clout |
It the first one, no matter how perfect |
is, because they absolutely believe |
hat it's out of the question for them to |
tut the first one in a safe place.
1 know one player who carries the /
to the extreme that he
won't even take wallop at the second |
,ood one. but invariably waits for the |
nird. He gets by with it at that, for |
lie stands high on the batting list, in
pite of the fact that he deliberately
waits for the third good one before he
makes a sure enough auino AZ r.