04/06/23
4/6/2023I need to apologize to the Iowa Hawkeye women’s basketball team for jinxing them in the NCAA tournament final game last Sunday.
I didn’t wear my Hawkeye sweatshirt.
I know, I was more than 700 miles from Dallas during the game. I know it wouldn’t have made any difference if I had been there. I know there’s absolutely no logical connection between my sweatshirt and the Hawk outcome.
Yet I feel unavoidably guilty for letting Bluder’s team down.
In that respect I share the superstition complex that has accompanied human beings through history and prehistory for thousands of years.
Cave paintings, pyramids in Egypt, stone circles like Stonehenge in England, and other ancient artifacts across the world demonstrate that homo sapiens for eons has believed in the power of people to affect the course of their lives through some type of incantation, or talisman, or special activity. Sports fans, while probably not so convinced of those kinds of luck, are no different from their great-great-ever-so-great forebears.
The forces of nature hold importance for humans today. But in early times they played an all-important role, through storms, drought, diseases, plagues, and other natural occurrences. Our ancestors, because they had little physical or scientific protections to draw on, did whatever they could to placate the nature gods whom they feared and worshiped.
In some cases that involved sacrifice, of their animals or other valuable possessions, of their own or others’ physical well-being, or even of the lives of their prisoners or their own tribal members.
The Old Testament sets out detailed rules of sacrifice for various offenses against peers or against Yahweh. Ancient Americans regularly sacrificed humans of various categories on altars of their stone temples to placate supernatural beings. People in various traditions, including a number of Christian denominations, undergo self-inflicted pain and hardship in order to show their devotion to higher powers and win favor with the almighty god or gods.
Talismans of many, many types hold special significance for millions of people: odd stones, animal teeth, saints’ relics and miniature images, rabbits’ feet, buckeyes, small carvings.
Athletes are no different. Some of them follow special routines or wear special clothing. In 1952, when the Jefferson High football team went undefeated, untied, and unscored on, one team member vowed at the season’s start that he would not shave (or maybe not get a haircut, I don’t remember which), until the team gave up a score. He was pretty hairy by the end of the season. It’s a practice shared in some form by many athletes.
A few professional sports figures have gained notoriety for their superstitions.
NFL linebacker Brian Urlacher ate two chocolate chip cookies before every game. No more, no less.
Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra stepped out of the batter’s box after every pitch to unsnap and resnap his batter’s gloves.
Many baseball teams observe the ritual of turning their caps backward in the dugout from the seventh inning on if they’re losing. And some players never wash, clean, or change their cap during the season.
Most players wouldn’t dream of speaking to a pitcher while he has a no-hitter going.
Wade Boggs took batting practice at 5:17 every afternoon and ran sprints at 7:17. He also ate chicken before every game.
Former Iowa State superstar Jeff Hornacek, later an NBA standout, would brush his right cheek before every free throw.
Baseball slugger Larry Walker set his alarm clock for 33 minutes after the hour, took groups of three swings in batting practice, and married on November 3 at 3:33 p.m. He bought 33 tickets for under-privileged kids when he played in Montreal, to be seated in Section 333. And he asked for $3,333,333.33 on one of his contracts.
Pitcher Turk Wendell always stood when his catcher squatted, and squatted when the catcher stood up. Many players step over the baseline, but Wendell leaped over it. He also wrote things in the dirt on the mound.
Daughter Molly interviewed Turk Wendell for the Bee and Herald back in 1992 at the Bell Tower Festival in Jefferson. He told her that when he pitched, he brushed his teeth between innings and waved to the center fielder before the first pitch of every inning.
Phillies Hall of Famer Richie Washburn slept at night with his bat. He said he had slept with a lot of old bats.
Detroit pitcher Mark “The Bird” Fidrych talked to the ball when it was in his glove, apparently telling it where to go on his next pitch.
Italian hockey coach Giovanni Trapattoni in 2002 took a bottle of holy water onto the field to sprinkle on the players, bench, and touch line.
If someone ever touched baseball player Kevin Rhomberg, he had to touch them back. He also never turned right (players turn left when running the bases). When he fielded a ball, he pivoted if that was necessary to avoid a right turn.
I have friends who won’t watch their favorite team on TV because they think it jinxes the team.
Anyway, I’ve put my Hawkeye sweatshirt away until next fall’s football season.
Now where’s my St. Louis Cardinals T-shirt? ♦
