Evening star., 1917-11-11
BALL PLAYERS SUPERSTTTIOUS,
STARS BEING NO EXCEPTION
Eddie Collins Objects to Any One Hand
ling His Glove-Bender, McInnis and
jackson Also Have Odd Ideas.
By BILLY EVANS.

BIZ BILLY
It was the sixth game of the 1917
had Just been retired after making thre
players were jubilant as they hastened
realized 1t was quite handicap for the
umpiring at second base. As Eddie Coll
to pick UP his glove and throw 1t to hin
Don't touch 1t, Bill" he yelled. as
"superstitious," remarked. as d
to recover the glove.
Collins is a graduate Of Columbia
in the game, but he is heir to some of t
Not superstitious. Bill" he replied
In the half of the inning just closed
Collins had made possible a Sox rally
by outwitting Zimmerman In the now
memorable sprint to the plate. That
incident was perhaps the turning point
in the series. Two other runs had fol-
lowed Collins over the plate on Gandils
hit. Dame Fortne was smiling on him.
He had no desire to cross her by having
some one else hand him his glove.
Each inning Collins carefully de-
posits his glove on the grass in
certain way. and to have 1t disturbed
would be most unfortunate. The first
man UP as play was resumed was Benny
Kauff. He hit a nasty bounder over
second on which Collins made a clever
play, getting his man at first by a step.
After completing the play he glanced at
me as II to say. say: II p probably . ~ would a,I
turbed my glove"
Joe jackson Superstitious, Too.
In the fourth inning of the second
game at Chicago. in which the Sox
made a cluster OF five runs and decided
the game. a crashing single by Joe
Jackson had much to do with keeping
up the batting rally. AS Jackson ap-
preached the plate I was standing
rather close to the New York catcher.
There was probably less than foot
between u.s. Jackson brushed through
the opening and offered an apology by
stating he never felt sure of having
any luck at the bat unless he walked
between the catcher and umpire. OF
course, we merely smiled. but I'll wager
Jackson didn't regard the matter light
That evening in our dressing room.
as we were preparing to make the jump
back to New York, the four umpires
were discussing the peculiar supersti-
tions Of many of the star players. In
Moriarty. who did such fine work in
his first year on the American League
staff. dropped in. Moriarty lives in
Chicago-that is. he registers Chicago.
SO, OF course he took in the games
Getting the drift of the conversation.
he related most unusual case OF su-
perstition with which the entire Detroit
club was once afflicted. This supersti-
ton wasn't confined entirely to the
players. Manager Jennings and Owner
Navin sharing in the belief. Here is
the way Moriarty tells 1t:
o'Leary's Parents Mascots.
"charley oLeary was a member Of
our infield that year. Charley's home
ed in that city his father and mother
always came out to see at least one of
the games Our team was going along
only. fairly. well. Things were break
o'Leary remarked that his father and
mothe~ ought to be carried by the De-
troit club as mascot. since they had
never seen the Tigers lose game. The
players were much interested in the
statement Some rather doubted the
truth OF the remark. We later learned
from Charley's father that 1t was a
fact. Mr.. and Mrs. O'Leary had never
laughingly told the boys he intended
having his father and mother come up
to Detroit for visit. The announce
ment cheered the players. They were
break might come their way. Hughey
Jennings. who had been listening, in
formed O'Leary that il his father and
mother made good on the mascot job
the expenses Of the trip would be on
the club.
We'll, to make my story short. the
O'Learys came to Detroit and, strange
as it may sound, the Tigers started
winning streak that didn't stop until
fourteen straight had been registered.
Charley's father and mother witnessed
every one of the fourteen straight wins.
The club was then due to make a long
49,,
extended to Mr.. and Mrs. o'Leary to
make the trip. Such a thing was i'm
possible, and on the evening of the
fourteenth straight victory they left for
record of straight wins was broken.
and you can bet that the loss of the
game was blamed not on pitching or
hitting. but the absence of the mascot"
Chief Bender's Funny One.
Chief Bender, one of the greatest
pitchers the game has ever produced
had a most peculiar superstition, to
which he strictly adhered. Time and
again have seen members OF his own
from his pet hobby. but always in vain.
Even in world series, with SO much
at stake Bender would cling to his one
big superstition, even though at times
it seemed he was courting disaster.
Under no condition would Bender
warm up between innings with any
other player on the field except his
regular catcher In several big series
1 have seen it happen that Ira Thomas,
who received Bender for a number of
wears, would be the last man out, or
would be on the bases when the side
was retired. OF course, that necessitat-
ed his return to the bench to don his
shin guards. protector and mask In
such cases one of the other catchers
always goes up to the plate and warns
up the pitcher. often the pitcher tosses
the ball to the first baseman until his
catcher gets ready, but not SO with
Bender Members of Mack's team were
aware of Benders superstition, but
they always acted as if not wise. Time
and again I have seen Jack Lapp rush
UP to the plate while Bender stood on
the rubber with the ball in his hand.
Lapp would yell frantically at Bender
to toss a couple. but the Indian would
only grin 'Stuffy" McInnis, at first
base, would also offer to catch few
until Thomas got ready, but neither
McInnis nor Lapp ever remember of
Bender breaking over.
Dutch Leonard's Hobby.
Dutch Leonard. star southpaw of
the Boston Red Sox. wouldn't think of
starting an inning unless the last ball
he pitched to his catcher in a warming
up session was a curve. had noticed
Leonard's desire to finish of with a
curve and on several occasions I have
Y1tY 10 ri hi Nffn