Ibanez JEM Forum banner

Weird superstitions. Do you have any?

2K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  Meechy 
#1 · (Edited)
Do an of you have superstitions?

First off, I am a math guy and pretty much on the side of science. I don't believe in ghosts, UFOs, or bigfoot. Yes, I believe there's life on other planets that I am sure have not visited us yet, and entertain the idea that there could have been a native primate in North America much more recently than most scientists believe, but I tend to be a skeptic.

When I hear about the deniers of global warming or talk to somebody who thinks the earth is 5,000 years old, I truly feel sorry for them. But I do have some personal superstitions that defy all logic but tend to be a part of me.

The most common one in a commonly superstitious realm (American baseball) is where I too fall victim. I can see where some players may feel one way or the other about certain rituals before a game to mentally prepare, but it does not make sense for a fan like me to have any rituals. But below is my five year odyssey of baseball superstition:

2010:

But while I love baseball and football and follow both most years closely, I got superstitious in 2010 with my SF Giants and "felt" that if I didn't give them all my attention as a fan, they wouldn't do well. Football came up like usual in 2010 and I was all ready to root on the SF Niners but for the first time in decades, I didn't watch a game, cruise the internet, or buy fan gear of my beloved football team. To you all, that would be like not touching an Ibanez for many weeks on end! The 2010 Giants had too many holes on their roster to be expected to make it to postseason and had to best the San Diego Padres (a better team) in the last series of the regular season. The Giants got past them, got into postseason on last day possible with an improbable win, got past better Braves, got past better Phillies, and then beat Rangers in five to get first ring in 56 years. Wow. I had followed Giants since the 1970s and it was weird to see this.

2011:

But that had nothing to do with my exclusivity following Giants and putting away all attention towards football in September and October. So in 2011 I followed both sports like I have always done. The Giants didn't make postseason. Oh well.

2012:

So in my depression of having seen the Giants unable to even make postseason the year after they won the World Series, I vowed to only follow baseball until its completion in 2012. So when I could have followed football that year, I watched the Giants face three elimination games against a red hot Reds in the NLDS only so see the Giants prevail against everybody's predictions. Football and Niner fandom was at its height but I refrained, and while that was hard, the Giants went and faced and survived another three elimination games, but this time against the defending World Series champ Cardinals. Nobody has done that. But this time in the World Series we were going to put our old and underachieving pitcher Barry Zito (who did any real work with A's before his trade to Giants) against the world's best Justin Verlander. We won that game and the next three and swept the Tigers. What? How?

2013:

Then I came back down to earth, and math/statistics, and followed the Giants and Niners at the same time in the overlapping parts of their seasons like most bay area fans, and guess what, the Giants failed to make postseason. How does a team with two out of three years getting two rings miss postseason?

2014:

So in 2014, I got superstitious again. Yes, it worked doing the hard thing of avoiding football in 2010 and 2012 in the virginal parts of the football season in Sept/Oct, but my common sense and grad school work in statistics/math told me that it's stupid to avoid football as if it will hex my baseball season. So this year while my Niners were in some terrible front office turmoil and needed its fans, I blocked them and got myopic on the Giants in a year they least belonged in a postseason in decades. San Francisco had a hurt ace in only perfect game pitcher Matt Cain and took two time Cy Young pitcher Tim Lincecum off the starter list entering postseason. Ace hitters Scutaro and Pagan would not make the postseason and we were down two out of four of out good hitters. No chance according to most and best odds put the Giants at 70 to 1 to win it all. So I am avoiding football for third time ever (after 2010 and 2012) and Giants in baseball barely make wild card but have to travel to Pittsburgh but win the wild card. OK, we got lucky. Then we face the NL's top regular season team Washington Nationals and beat them. But then we have to face the revenge based Cardinals whom we came from behind 1-3 to win NLCS and take them out, and with a final walk off 3 run homer from minor league prospect Travis Ishikawa (washed up minor league Pittsburgh Pirates castoff to late season SF Giant). We somehow get through the wild card game, NLDS, and NLCS but then have to face the undefeated postseason Kansas City Royals who seem to be a team of destiny (and great hitters all around). We to go seven games in World Series and beat them in the last game on the road the night after they demolish us 10-0 in game six. Too weird. Three World Series championships in just five years and we aren't the Yankees.

So that's my rant on my weird (every other year, so far) superstition of being a baseball fan to end of season and avoiding all football fandom.
 
See less See more
#6 ·
I feel about the same as you... regarding ghosts, spirits, ufo's (plausible), etc... But I won't walk under a ladder, I "knock on wood" all the time, etc.

Funny how the human mind likes to think it knows everything. It yearns for all knowledge to be neat and tidy, with no loose ends, and will trick you into strange behaviors to achieve it.

I too only drink beer on days ending in "Y"... :)
 
#7 ·
I feel about the same as you... regarding ghosts, spirits, ufo's (plausible), etc... But I won't walk under a ladder, I "knock on wood" all the time, etc.

Funny how the human mind likes to think it knows everything. It yearns for all knowledge to be neat and tidy, with no loose ends, and will trick you into strange behaviors to achieve it.

I too only drink beer on days ending in "Y"... :)
I think, at least for the players on the SF Giants, especially the very up and down Pablo Sandoval, a certain mental preparedness helps in a game. He is very superstitious but gets inward in his mind like that in postseason. His quirky actions and beliefs help him focus on that 2 centimeters of accuracy a batter needs to dial in on to either make a hit or a foul ball. One's training and physical shape can only account for so much and in game of inches as baseball is, being in the proper mental state can make up for a lot.

The math side of me still will only think that proper conditioning and coaching is all you need, but sometimes a team (these past few years the lowly SF Giants) seem to be playing well above their capabilities. The SF pitchers have a certain average or slightly above average ERA so that's good, and the batters have an average or below average batting average and all things being fair, should usually just miss the playoffs with who we have (84-78? or so). I can only attribute the mental state, and perhaps some superstition to help eke out a 90-72 season.

Here are some interesting odds of the great dynasties of baseball including the SF Giants of late:

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/100058596/baseball-dynasties-ranking-giants-yankees
 
#8 ·
I would be the same, I don't believe in ghosts, luck, destiny, although I do believe in UFOs - not from an alien source, but rather misidentification of aircraft, weather and occasionally tests of new military technologies.

I read about experiments which were performed to examine if superstition is the sole property of the human mind as many of us would imagine. However, it was discovered that many animals can develop superstitions. The most interesting one was feeding pidgeons when they touched a particular button on a feeder, the pidgeons learned quickly to touch the button and get the reward, but when the feeders were set to random the pidgeons quickly began to examine their behaviour as they thought they were somehow affecting the feeding process, so some would stand in front of the feeder on one leg or turn their head a certain way in the hope that there was actually a pattern to the rewards. This is superstitious behaviour, which at it's most basic sense is seeing a pattern where none exists and believing that one's actions somehow affects the pattern. Seeing patterns is vital in the evolution of all animals, as being able to recognise a pattern or something which is alien to the pattern was imperative to survival. Spotting eyes in grass or ripples against the current of a river helped our ancestors avoid being eaten, shifts in weather patterns etc. As humans we were able to vocalise our particular superstitions, so perhaps after climbing a particular mountain there was a bumber harvest then the mountain became holy, then despite a repeat of the same behaviour the harvest was poor, perhaps the mountain required a sacrifice. Perhaps someone drowned in a particular river and that river became cursed and inhabited by those of the underworld. So in a sense, the ability of most animals to survive by noticing patterns can go into overdrive and over time we can't see the wood for the trees.

I have superstitions based on experience, but they are still superstitions and misconceptions.

If I change to a different queue at the supermarket the queue I was on will pass more quickly.

If I buy a new guitar my wife will be struck with a mysterious silence where she can still convey complex emotions such as disdain, anger and dismay without the utterance of a single audible sound. This inexplicable silence can last for 48 hours or more.

If I really love the Jemsite backing track I will inevitably make a complete pigs arse of it or I will be too busy to do it justice
 
#10 ·
If I buy a new guitar my wife will be struck with a mysterious silence where she can still convey complex emotions such as disdain, anger and dismay without the utterance of a single audible sound. This inexplicable silence can last for 48 hours or more.

If I really love the Jemsite backing track I will inevitably make a complete pigs arse of it or I will be too busy to do it justice
awesome!!! those literally made me laugh out loud too - nice ;o) good to know my wife's not the only one who does that...it's a curse ;o)
 
#12 ·
but back on the subject: some of my superstitions are linked to the fact that I'm a left hander but my school teacher at the 1st grade forced me to use my right hand, but there's one linked to music:
after having changed the strings, I always let the guitar aside for a few days for the strings to stabilize. I happened once a long time ago where I played intensively right after having changed them: the strings didn't hold the tuning for 5 consecutive minutes until I eventually changed them after 1 week...
 
#14 ·
but back on the subject: some of my superstitions are linked to the fact that I'm a left hander but my school teacher at the 1st grade forced me to use my right hand,
That's an interesting one, I've met a lot of people who were forced to use their right hand by deranged teachers. This probably comes from the Latin for left which was sinistrum to which sinister owes its origins. In classical Roman religions they believed the right to be associated with correctness and skill, this found its way into Christianity and the rest is history. Even the term "right" for correct in English owes it's origins to this. This is almost universal and I have been told that while we have stopped forcing kids to write with their non dominant hand, in many parts of Asia they still do.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top