Title: “Centuries” Pre-Game

General Information about Item:

Genre: Customary Lore, Magic Superstition

Country of Origin: United States

Informant: JM

Date Collected: 10-28-21

Informant Data:

JM is a student in the class of 2022 at Dartmouth College. He is on the baseball team. He was born and raised in in Charlotte, NC, and he played high school baseball for the Providence Day School. He plays as a pitcher for the baseball team at Dartmouth.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: JM’s high school baseball team was very good in his senior year of high school (2018). He was one of the best players on the team coming into the season, but by the end of the season, he was even better. The song that his team would always walk out to when they came on the field before games was “Centuries” by Fallout Boy. That year, he played better than he ever had before, especially when he was hitting. He doesn’t know who chose this song and it had been the tradition to play this song before games since he had been at the school. Now he needs to listen to this song before every game because he believes it will make him play better. I collected this piece of folklore in person from JM when I asked him about his pre-game rituals.

Cultural Context: Most sports team at a competitive high school or college level have walk out songs that are supposed to get them excited before games. This high school walkout song stuck with JM and he brought this ritual over to Dartmouth.

Item:

Before JM walks out onto the field, the last song that he has to listen to is “Centuries” by Fallout Boy in order for him to play well.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript:

“My senior year of high school, this was my team’s walkout song, and I played really well that year. So ever since then, I listen to that song in my headphones before I go out onto the field.”

Informant’s Comments:

I truly believe that this song contributes to making me play well this year. It really gets me in the zone to play my games. Whoever came up with the idea to listen to this before games knew what he was doing.

Collector’s Comments:

It is interesting that he was able to bring something came from his high school back to Dartmouth College. He was able to convert a ritual that he had with his whole team in high school to a personal superstition and ritual he believes in.

Collector’s Name:

George Altirs

Dartmouth College

Russian 13: Slavic Folklore

Professors Gronas and Apresjan

21F