Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-23
|ODD IDEAS SETTLE
MANY BALL GAMES
Superstitions of Players Are
Very Numerous and Un-
usually Unique.

Ball players as a class are about ds
superstitious a. crowd of men as ever
were in any business. They are not as
bad now as in the old days, because the
men on an average are much better
| educated-but it is hard to find player
even now, who is without his pet super
stition
| Signs that the team will win or lose
on a certain day are as numerous as
| signs of death among negroes in the
south. The team that passes a load OF
| hay, not baled, on the way to a game Is
confident that ii means victory. wagon
| load of empty barrels is also another
sure sign of winning, while any team
will have the bus stopped and drive
| blocks out of the way to avoid funeral
OF to dodge passing a house with crepe
on the door. But those are general super
stitions. Almost every player has his
! own either as to his hitting or as to
whether the team will lose on certain
days.
Affects Standings.
Superstition cuts a big figure in the
standing of the clubs, for. as every one
| knows confidence is half the game, and
| the player who believes his team beaten
before the game starts cannot play as
we'll as the man who dreamed the night
before that he made six hits.
Danny Friend. who was the sensation
| for n Few years among those who flung
| from the offSide, had an odd 'SuperStl-
ton. If any one at the table with him
at luncheon before a game ordered any
thing sour or picked, he was morally
certain that he would be beaten II he
pitched that afternoon. On the days that
Danny slated to pjtcb il funny
to see him dodge away from the table
where Bill Dahlen was eating, for Bill
made specially of picked foods-golng
from cucumber pickles through the list
| to picked pigs feet if he could get them
When the players discovered Danny's
superstition. he had to eat alone or for
get his hoodoo.
Josh Reilly. who came up from Texas
fiery and untamed. to conquer the Ma
tional League several years ago told a
story which is hard to beat.
One spring the San Antonio team APP
peared to be the strongest in the Texas
League. Every player was a star. and
it looked as if the team would romp
home with the pennant Never was such
an aggregation of sluggers gathered to-
gether in the Lone Star state. Even
the pitchers were touted to bat over 800.
The season started. San Antonio lost
fourteen straight games and base hits
were scarcer than snow storms down that
way. The team was wild and the players
were Quarreling among themselves. They
were certain some one had hoodooed
them and stopped their hitting.
Bats Were Blessed.
One morning Reilly had brilliant
idea. He summoned the small negro
boy who was acting as mascot for the
club and loaded him down with bats
belonging to the club. 1t happened that
Schlatter, the alleged divine healer"
was then running show in San Antonio.
Down the main streets of the town Josh
and the small dusky mascot trudged
until they came to SchlatterS tent. Josh
paid the healer" So to bless the bats
That afternoon San Antonio played
Dallas. According to Josh's veracious
report, San Antonio made fifty-three
base hits, most of them two or three
| baggers. With those bats they hammer
ed out the pennant and had nine men
hitting above 300 when the flag fell.
Josh brought a lot of those bats with
him into the National League, but some
how the charm failed to work there.
The Minneapolis ball club. under Com
skey, the present owner of the Chicago
White SoX, had an outfielder who was
superstitous. He had been a good hit
ter, but when he came into the Western
League he suddenly stopped hitting and
could not make a single a week. The
management, disguised, determined to re-
lease him.