Baseball superstitions

Baseball players are an odd lot. They are the most superstitious group of people I know. And nobody really knows why there are more superstitions in baseball than other sports.

In baseball, you don't dare talk about a pitcher having a no-hitter or perfect game in progress. It's bad luck.

Players and coaches never step on the chalk foul line when walking to or from the field. Some guys won't get rid of an old glove for fear it might bring back luck. When a guy is on a hitting streak, he often sits in the same spot on the dugout bench. Some superstitious hitters must step out of the batter's box and tighten their batting gloves after each pitch. Most players won't dare wear the "unlucky" No. 13 on their jersey.

And, as it was put in the movie Bull Durham, you must respect a winning streak.

We can go on and on.

"You don't have much superstition in football like you do in baseball," said Wild Things center fielder Chris Sidick, who played both sports at Marietta College and Canon-McMillan High School. "I guess it's because baseball is an everyday thing. In football, you're building up for a game for seven days."

Though they are only in the minor leagues, the Wild Things and Frontier League coaches and players have some superstitions that can only be described as major-league quirks. For example:

- In 2003, after losing 5-3 and 1-0 games at Rockford, the Wild Things pulled out of town and headed for Chicago. Then-pitching coach Mark Mason told the driver to stop the bus while on the bridge above the Rock River. Mason, who had purchased a new pair of turf shoes only a couple of days earlier, believed the shoes were bringing the team bad luck. So he got off the bus and hurled the shoes into the river. Two days later, the Wild Things broke a three-game losing streak by scoring 23 runs.

- In 2005, Washington left fielder Matt Swope was mired in a frustrating slump. He blamed it on his undergarments.

"Matt threw away all his Under Armour and went to Dick's and bought new everything," Sidick recalled. "That night, he started his 26-game hitting streak."

The best Wild Things superstition story includes Mason, when Washington ripped off a 13-game winning streak several years ago. The day the streak began, Mason ate lunch at Long John Silver's.

"So we said, 'We won last night, let's go back to Long John Silver's tomorrow," Mason recalled. "We kept winning and I kept eating at Long John's. I ate lunch, and ordered the same thing, at Long John's for 13 consecutive days.

"My thing is, when we're on a winning streak, I get dressed the same way and wear the same clothes. I also like to park my car in the same parking space."

Many Washington pitchers have been superstitious about jersey colors. On most days, the starting pitcher determines which jersey the Wild Things wear. If he won his last start while wearing the black jersey, he'll go with black in the next start. If he's coming off a tough loss or a bad start, he's picking a different color.

Some people are superstitious about numbers. Sidick changed his jersey number this year - his fifth in the Frontier League - from No. 12 to No. 5. He had a bad first half of the season, so someone in the Wild Things organization blamed the bad start on Sidick's number.

"When I was packing for the road trip after the all-star break, I noticed all my jerseys were gone from my locker," Sidick said.

That's because the switch back to No. 12 was being made.

Sidick batted .187 in the first half of the season, wearing No. 5. Since the switch to his old No. 12, Sidick is hitting .324.

"I put (No.12) on that first game at Evansville and it just felt right," Sidick said. "You might not think something like that is a big deal, but mentally it's big for a player."

One coach in the Frontier League is so superstitious that during a winning streak he used the same worn-out stick of deodorant, though it falling apart and rubbing his armpits raw. He wouldn't buy a new stick of deodorant until the streak was broken.

Not all players in the Frontier League are superstitious. Well, at first they claim not to be.

"I'm not superstitious," Kalamazoo manager Fran Riordan said. "Not at all. I've played with a lot of guys who are superstitious. I've even been around guys who are so superstitious that when they're on a hitting streak they take the same number of steps from the on-deck circle to the batter's box each at-bat. It's creates some problems when on the road and you have more or less distance to cover.

"As for me, I'm not like that. I don't even notice if I step on the foul line or not when I walk to the mound. ... Well, maybe I am superstitious about one thing."

Actually two, and they can be found together. Gas stations and convenience stores.

"I'll admit to that," Riordan said. "When we're on the road, I want to stop at a gas station that has a good variety of snacks, is clean, well-staffed and we can get out of there in less than 20 minutes. But if we had a bad road trip and lose a few games, we'll find another gas station next time."