Hey baseball fans!
Today is finally the day you get to find out who the "Chicken Man" is (hint: he had 3,010 career hits)! In other words, today, I will be blogging about some of the most interesting (and strangest) baseball superstitions and customs of all time. Hope you enjoy:
Moises Alou
This great ballplayer never got callouses on his hands and never wore batting gloves! Why? He would urinate on them before every game in order to make them tougher. It paid off (except for the smell of his hands) in the end, though. He hit .303 lifetime with 332 homers. Do you think his teammates shook his hand after he homered?
Kevin Rhomberg
In the '80s when Kevin would get tagged out on the base paths, he would then tag the person who tagged him, trying to start a game of tag. Indians fans loved to watch this, which is why he was very entertaining to watch.
Don Robinson
Once a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, Robinson would never catch a ball that was supposed to be used to pitch in the inning. If an ump threw him the ball, he would not catch it. He would make sure that it came to a complete stop after rolling and then he would pick it up.
Joe DiMaggio
The great Yankee of the '30s and '40s always had a ritual when he went out to his center field position: he would touch second base on the way to the outfield.
Mark McGwire
One of the most disgusting superstitions in baseball: he wore the same athletic cup in every single one of his games in his 16 seasons of the MLB that he did in high school. I have no idea why someone would have even known to ask him, "Hey Mark, how long have you had that cup?" It makes no sense. Nonetheless, it's pretty funny.
Richie Ashburn
This Hall of Famer for the Phillies respected his bat very much; so much so that he slept with it every night with the hope that it would make him good at the plate the next day.
Mike Hargrove
He didn't earn the nickname the "Human Rain Delay" for nothing. His pre-batting ritual took him over 40 seconds!
Jim Palmer
You all should be familiar with this superstition based on my interview with Jim: before every game, this Hall of Fame pitcher for the Orioles would eat a full stack of pancakes. Well, it's official. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Wade Boggs
For those of you who don't know already, BOGGS IS THE CHICKEN MAN!!! Why? He ate a full plate of fried chicken before every game.
What do all think? Weird, right? Either way, there's no baseball without some weird stuff, and these superstitions just about sum up the MLB's history of weirdness. Anyway, I hope you all liked this post.
