Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-08-14
BALL PLAYERS
SUPERSTITIOUS
TO A Degree

When it comes TO superstition, moth
! ing in the world can touch the theat
rical profession. but professional base
bali players run q close second. And
baseball might be an easy first If il
were not for its comparative youth,
The stage has been gathering tradi
tons and fetishes for thousands OF
years Professional baseball is scarce
ly half century old. &..- ..=~...
There are scores Of things one can.
not do on the stage without trans.
crossing tradition, from raising an
umbrella to speaking the tag" OF a
new play in rehearsals. Basebalfs
traditions are not SO hidebound nor
so generally observed Its supersti-
tions chiefly are individual, or. at
least, peculiar to different teams. or
course there is the old belief that the
umpire never can be right except oc-
casionally on fly balls. and that Is as
widespread as the game itself But,
in the main, the superstitions are spo-
radio.
That Wad Of chic!e.
One of the oldest cases is found in
the Buffalo Feds camp. Did you ever
watch Hal Chase at bat? You may
have to watch a whole game before
you discover his pet superstition. But
If you look closely you will see that
he always wears on the little button
on top of his cap wad of chewing
gum. Every time he steps to the plate
that perky ornament Is there, unless
all the gum shops In town happen TO
be closed and there is no way to get
any wax"
The gum sticks there unmolested
unless Chase has two strikes called on
him. Then he reaches up, removes
the gum and puts it in his mouth.
where it undergoes vigorous mastica-
ton during the rest of that time at
bat. While in the. field Chase usually
keeps the gum in his face. instead OF
on his cap, but never does he go to
bat with it In his mouth, and never
does he remove it from its perch on
his lid unless there are two strikes on
him.
Players are sometimes ''tonchyv
about such things. Everybody in
basebalI lhas nd esa falaea ~ q gum
fofble, but nobody knows why. Some
of them have little Billiken stunts OF
their own to play, which might make
| them look foolish in the eyes of their
pals, and they like to have their own
superstitions respected. Consequent-
" they respect Hal Chase's and mere.
ly wonder what effect wad of gum
can have on third strike
Always Doff Lid.
There are a number OF beliefs that
are general in baseball. There is the
old one about the load of empty bar
rels. No ball player sees such a load
going along the street on his way to
a ball party without-mentally. at
Ileast-taking off his hat to it. That
spectacle is supposed to mean lot
of base hits.
There are few commodities of great
er scarcity among ball players than
matches, and the great majority of
players smoke something some Of
them a great deal. Sometimes there
will be only one box of matches on q
/ trainload of ball players en- tour. Ere.
quently half dozen of them will
want to start smoking Immediately on
locating the lone box of lucifers. But
you never will see more than two
players light up from the same match.
1t is against all tradition to take three
lights from the same match. 1t won't
even do to light two cigars from a
match and then permit third to get
a light from one of those cigars. The
rule is ironelad, and a new match
must be ignited if there are more
than two ropes to be burned.
The old Boston National League
team used to. have a certain spot to
place the broom which was used to
sweep off the plate. Opponents got
wise to it and would try to keep the
broom on the other side of the plate,
and frequently the game had to be
stopped until some Boston player put
back the broom. That was before the
present system Of whisk broems, car
ried in the umpire's clothing, was in
troduced.
Joe Tinker, a Chicago idol, always
took pains to approach the plate in
exactly the same manner next time
he came to bat after making safe
hit II he passed behind the umpire
when he went up and made a hit he
would go out of his way to go around
the arbitrator aext time, and vice
versa.