Spinning the Yarn

Being a baseball player in the Bigs is much like being a ballet’s prima ballerina – one slip and you will read all about it in the newspaper the next day. Wally Pipp was the starting first baseman for the Bronx Bombers. One day he got a headache and decided to sit out the game. His replacement for that game was a rookie, Lou Gehrig, who played the next 2,130 games in a row at Wally’s first sack. Players know that a headache, a badly bouncing ball, even an umpire’s blown call might change their playing trajectory. When you make it to the Show, you have made it to the top. But as they say in any endeavor, it is harder to stay on top than to get there. Almost every player will admit that Lady Luck can be a factor in games, seasons, even careers. Conversely, bad luck tends to scare players, managers and fans. So why take further chances? They look for good luck charms. Today, we have rather mundane superstitions to bring good luck – or maybe to avoid bad luck. Some players won’t step on the chalked lines. Others eat only chicken or tacos before games. And others fuss with their caps before throwing the ball. Has it always been this boring? Nope. Let’s go way back to the era when the National League was founded, 1870-1890. Back then things were a lot wilder. Pitchers threw with vengeance at batters. Batting helmets? No. They did not use gloves. Catchers’ hands were warped from snagging the pitches. It was a cleats-up game. One Hall of Fame pitcher would always run off the field chasing after a fire truck racing past the diamond. And all of this may have been considered mundane in relation to the original club ball where soaking – the act of getting a batter out by throwing the ball and hitting him – was a great way to relieve a player’s anger. Indeed, thirty years into its organized founding, baseball was a reflection of the wild west. The Brooklyn Eagle reported on a game between the Brooklyn Grays (later known as the Trolley Dodgers) and the Harrisburg Olympics. The visiting Olympics “came on the field dressed in the dirtiest uniforms ever seen on the grounds.” The Olympics quickly began “kicking” (arguing or fighting) with the home plate umpire, John Dailey. Brooklyn’s pitcher, John Schappert, was throwing an illegal overhanded pitch which was considered dangerous, but umpire John Dailey refused to enforce the rule that treated the pitch as a balk. Moments later, the batter swung, hitting a fly tip that flew into umpire Dailey’s face, breaking his jawbone. The Olympics then began torturing the replacement umpire. Once it was clear the Grays had the game won, “the amiable party from Harrisburg (Olympics) began kicking (quarreling and fighting) among themselves. They are beyond question the worst lot of growlers in the association[.]” One can easily imagine the clubhouse atmosphere in those days. Teams didn’t provide clean uniforms to the players. The baseballs were scuffed up and wetted with juices of many varieties. The rules were developing and not always enforced. Players looked for every edge to win a game, including lucky charms. So, let’s explore the superstitions of the early neanderthal ball players. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described the state of mascot affairs in 1886. "There is not an organized club in the country that has not its horse-shoe either buried under the “lucky” part of the field or nailed up over some door where all the players have to pass under it on their way to the ball field." Players had personal luck charms, like four-leaf clovers. Other players turned shirts wrong-side out before beginning play, and others always slept in a certain position. Objects, like clothing, often would become lucky charms if they were worn or used during a successful winning streak. Henry Porter, who debuted in 1884 with the Milwaukee Grays, by 1885 was an American Association Brooklyn Trolley Dodger, winning 33 games. He was a slim 142-pound pitcher who wore the same red jersey in every game he pitched. When the team went to play the St. Louis Browns in 1885, he dropped his lucky jersey off at a nearby laundry to be washed. As game time neared, the laundry still had his beloved red jersey. Porter believed it was impossible for him to win a game without that jersey. Knowing that a loss was imminent, Porter did the only thing he could – he broke down crying. One of the club directors saw his 26-year old ace in torment, so he ran down the street and returned “just in the nick of time” with the jersey. Porter won the game, and the jersey affirmed its importance. Of note is that Porter also lost 21 games that year, so the jersey’s luck did not protect him from losing. It only aided him in winning. The Cincinnati players considered “Kid” Baldwin’s pink jersey the team’s good luck charm. A young laundry woman took a shine to the jersey, eloping with it and her mate-to-be. The team’s luck disappeared, and the club fell to last place. Every baseball team of the era was looking for Lady Luck to help it win games. It became quite the vogue for teams to adopt a mascot. Mascots of that day were not marketing ploys like today’s mascots who wear cartoonish outfits and appeal to the kids. Nor were they symbols of their respective teams. Rather, the mascots served the simple function of bringing Lady Luck to the team. If a team’s fortunes improved, the team would sign the mascot to a contract. However, if a team’s fortunes did not improve or continue at a successful rate, the mascot would be fired. In fact, it was recognized that the selection of a mascot was the “most serious business that a club can indulge in. Good players are not specially needed. A good mascot carries the game right along.”