2008 Woodie Awards
Sports Superstitions
Jack Morris
Issue date: 10/24/08 Section: News
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What is falling out of the forefront of this season, and now just becoming an everyday thing, are sports superstitions.
Simply put, superstitions are acts based on a belief. Many people are hardcore believers in superstitions while others are lighthearted about them. The old "don't let a black cat cross your path" and "break a mirror will give you seven years of bad luck" superstitions have faded. People really have serious sports superstitions.
A lot of superstitions aren't as physical. In theater they say, "break a leg" which means good luck.
In baseball, they say it is bad luck to touch the baselines while running on and off the field between innings. In basketball, they say the last person to shoot a basket during warm up will have a good game. In football, they say wearing the color of the opposing team under your jersey will bring them bad luck.
Some famous athletes that have some are Michael Jordan, who always wore his blue North Carolina shorts under his Bulls uniform for good luck. Mike Hargrove (before he was a MLB manager) would come to the plate, where he would perform a series of adjustments - fiddling with his batting gloves, pants, sleeves, wiping perspiration off his lips and pushing down on the top of his batting helmet before he was ready to step in. It earned him the nickname, "The Human Rain Delay."
The NHL's Pelle Lindbergh would wear the same old orange T-shirt from a Swedish sporting goods company under his equipment. Each time the shirt started to fall apart, he had someone sew it up. Rodger Federer sits in a room by himself and yells before a game, and Tiger Woods wears the color red on Sundays.
These are just a few sports superstitions. There are more, and I want to find them out. If you have superstitions please email newspaper@kwu.edu, and see if they make it into the nest issue!
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