Baseball Magic

Baseball Magic ---> In the article "Baseball Magic" by George Gmelch, it talks about how players and their rituals they perform before a game. The whole idea is to show how two different cultures, American Baseball and the Trobriand Islanders both have the same idea. That idea being that if you change your way of doing something it ultimately ruin you. Keeping things the same will keep your luck the same. -----> The article talks about rituals, how Dennis Grossini, a Detroit Tiger pitcher, would do everything the same on game day. Dennis would wake up at the same time, eat lunch at the same time, in fact he would eat the same lunch. All this was to win the game, he think that if he lives everyday the same way he did the day he won. That the out come will always be the same. Some may think that this is just stupid, but in reality it may work. By touching your hat or shirt, it reline your hand to where it was when you threw the strike. A ritual for me that in high school before we went on stage to do a play we would all have to jump up and hit the sign above the backstage door. -------> The article also talks about taboo, to where players can not say a certain word or it will break the luck of another player. The one mentioned in the book is when people say "no-hitter" around the pitcher, it there for makes him throw horrible from then on. In theater people say "break a leg" instead of good luck. Taboo for me is every time I slam on breaks or almost get in a wreck I say the words "we're going to die" in hopes that it reverses the out come. -------> The other thing people use for luck is something like a rabbits foots, a fetish. Some player request their lucky number to be on their jersey. I carry around a random playing card from a deck that has a whole in it, someone handed it to me one day and said here, its good luck. I have had it in my wallet ever since. So,