Who Says It's Only a Game?

I do not think that many people would dispute the fact that baseball fans and players are much more superstitious and generally weird when it comes to their baseball team and what makes them win or lose. David Eckstein eats macaroni and cheese with chicken teriyaki every day during the season. It is his lucky meal.

I remember during the World Series in Anaheim, the usher that normally patrols my section was working the back player gate. Like many of the ushers in Angel Stadium, Bob is in his late 60s or early 70s. Someone left a large bicycle rack in the players’ parking lot. It was rather large, like the ones we used to have in front of school. The worst thing was that it was in Troy Percival's parking space.

Panic began to erupt when Darin Erstad pulled into his normal parking space. He hurriedly got out of his truck and told Bob that he had to help him move the bicycle rack right away! Bob was more than happy to help, but the thing weighed at least a couple of hundred pounds!

Ersties began to panic even further. Percy would be there any minute and would become insane if he saw it there. It could cause us to lose the series. With much difficulty, Darin and Bob managed to drag the bike rack over to the side of the building and just in the nick of time, as Percy was just coming around the corner. They never did tell him why they were both covered in beads of sweat.

Now, as a fan, I can definitely say I am just as superstitious as the players. One year, I wore an Angels jersey for months. It smelled so bad, I think it could stand up on its own. But I swore that we won every time I wore that thing to the game. When I could no longer stand the smell, I decided to throw it in the wash.

Wouldn't you know it—we had one of the longest losing streaks that season. During 2002, I made sure that I wore a player jersey t-shirt under my Angels jersey. If I forgot it, I either made the one-and-a-half hour commute back home to get it, or I just bought another one at the stadium. I have enough red t-shirts to do about three loads of laundry.

I always knew that, as a baseball fan, I did things a little differently. I really didn't think much of it because my baseball friends were all the same way. They wore special shirts or socks or jewelry as long as they kept winning. Once they started losing, then they would take the item off or change what they were doing.

Only when I watched the movie Fever Pitch

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