March 5, 2008

Top 10: Sports Superstitions. : Sports are a competitive business, and athletes face a tremendous amount of pressure to always be at their best. Sometimes it’s not enough to just practice and train for hours on end, as players also need to have a mental edge, which often manifests in some strange and nonsensical behaviors and beliefs. Maybe performing the following rituals don’t make an athlete play better, but not adhering to them will certainly make them worse, if only in their own mind.

read story | posted by BoKnows to Culture at 9:54 AM CDT (12 comments total)

These types of superstitions exist with amateur athletes as well as the professionals. Through decades of baseball I had to always wear a certain t-shirt under my jersey (it would be a different one each season, but that one shirt would be worn the entire year, especially if things were going good). I had to have my uniform cleaned each day, even if it meant doing laundry as opposed to sleeping. And I was so possessive about my bat for years I treated it like a small child. If someone else ever used it and, god forbid, slammed it to the ground or something similar, I was likely to pummel them. Also, little things like rubbing my bat a certain way prior to arriving at the batters box, and refusing to speak to the catcher or umpire were as serious as breathing to me. As much as I wanted not to be held hostage to these superstitions, I couldn't shake them, and if I had a bad game it must have had something to do with one of these superstitions, not with my own shortcomings that day (or the competition just being better).

posted by dyams at 10:29 AM CDT on March 5

I'll second that dyams. One season, I accidentally put my stirrup socks on backwards in the first game. I went 3 for 4, so I purposely had to wear them that way the rest of the season. (And I had a pretty good season btw.) And don't even get me started about babying my bat.

posted by trox at 11:32 AM CDT on March 5

I'm sorry for being a sicko, but upon first glance at the accompanying picture for the article, the first deranged thought that entered my warped mind was "Before home games, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick likes to electrocute a dog."

Again, my apologies for sharing this. I am a troubled man on a lot of cold medicine.

I, myself, had no superstitious ticks to get through a game, or to even have a modicum of success. Because I sucked. But as a musician, I do have my favorite gig underwear. That's kinda the same.

posted by THX-1138 at 2:11 PM CDT on March 5

Playoff beards
Originally a hockey tradition, but since adopted by other sports

Baron Davis!

I have worn the exact same clothes two days after swimming really well in a league meet for league finals. Other than that I've only had small superstitions, various routines that I do usually during baseball games.

And I never step on the foul lines.

posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 2:56 PM CDT on March 5

Beckham is not the only Galaxy player with superstition #1. Watch the next time Landon Donovan gets ready to take a penalty kick; he always does a complicated set of hand gestures, including kissing the back of his hand, while squatting a couple of yards behind the spot. Then again, he scores on a decent percentage of the PKs so I can't complain.

posted by billsaysthis at 3:12 PM CDT on March 5

Henrik Lundqvist logged a record six shut outs in a season

Wha? Record? *ahem*

22-George Hainsworth, 1928-29
15-Alex Connell, 1925-26
15-Alex Connell, 1927-28
15-Hal Winkler, 1927-28
15-Tony Esposito, 1969-70
14-George Hainsworth, 1926-27

posted by mkn at 4:04 PM CDT on March 5

Wha? Record? *ahem*

I noticed that too, mkn. The article should've stated that it was a personal best record, not an all time record.

posted by BoKnows at 4:10 PM CDT on March 5

Some of these bare the marks of being more of a routine than a 'superstition'. I wouldn't call my penchant for eating brunch at the same place every Sunday a superstition.

Now, the fact that I annoint my chopped steak with 2 drops of bat's blood to ward off the ghosts of my ancestral enemies - that might cut it.

posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 4:18 PM CDT on March 5

When we're doing live-fire testing, we wave a rubber chicken around the equipment before the day's shots. It's just to make sure that everything works. During one test, in which we were not participating, we had left our equipment at the target site (it normally stays there). Since we were not there, and didn't wave the chicken, sure enough we took a missile through the equipment shelter. The good news is that it hit the only 10 square inches where it would do no serious damage. The chicken survived too.

posted by Howard_T at 4:19 PM CDT on March 5

The most common superstition isn't in the list.

That is, praying to an imaginary deity.

posted by owlhouse at 5:52 PM CDT on March 5

Oh, sure, and we came from monkeys, right? Friggin' hippies.

posted by The_Black_Hand at 7:37 PM CDT on March 5

Dammit mkn, I got here late. It's not so much that you posted that list before me that bothers me; it's that I looked it up and had it all ready to go before I read the comments on this post. Coulda done what I'm best at, which is nothing. Oh, well, thanks.

In my high school and colliegate hockey career, I used to wear the same t-shirt under my equipment for the entire season, only washing it if we lost. My final year in high school, we went 26-3 and lost in the state semis, winning something like 16 straight toward the end of the season. Nobody wanted to be anywhere near me on the bench, but I like to think it worked for a while. Or maybe it's because I went to Catholic school, and there were all kind of prayers to an imaginary diety on behalf of our team.

posted by tahoemoj at 11:31 AM CDT on March 6

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