Tag Archives: baseball

“Centuries” Pre-Game (George Altirs)

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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

Home Plate (Drew Clutterbuck)

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Title: Home Plate

General Information about Item:

  • Magic Superstition (Sympathetic Magic)
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: B.D.
  • Date Collected: 11-5-21

Informant Data: B.D. is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2022 who is majoring in government. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Matthews, North Carolina where he started playing baseball at the age of 7. He is currently competing on the varsity baseball team at Dartmouth College, playing as an infielder.  

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In baseball, there are four bases that a player must round in order to score a point for their team. They can advance to the next base when the person batting hits the ball in play and it is not caught. They must get to the next base before being tagged by the ball, or before a player on the other team holding the ball touches the base they are running to. Once a person on the batting team reaches “home plate,” which is the final base, their team gets a point. 
  • Social Context: This superstition was collected at the Baker Library when asking the informant if he had any personal or team superstitions. It has been around for a very long time and he is not really sure where or how it originated, but he found out about it before his first practice with the Dartmouth baseball team.

Item:

  • If a freshman touches home plate before their first Ivy League game, then they will play poorly for the rest of the season and the team will lose that first game. 

Transcript:

  • “For team superstitions, we have this one where no one who is a freshman can touch home plate until they play their first Ivy League game… If they do, they will definitely play badly and the team will lose that first game.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “In my time at Dartmouth, all the freshmen have been very wary of touching home plate, and no one has broken this rule, so it seems as though everyone believes in it, including myself.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • I find this superstition interesting in that it not only affects the individual who touches home plate, but it affects the team as a whole as well.

Collector’s Name: Drew Clutterbuck

Tags/Keywords:

  • Superstition
  • American
  • Baseball
  • Dartmouth
  • Home Plate
  • Freshmen

White Left Wrist (Jack Cameron)

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Title: White Left Wrist

General Information about Item:

  • Magic Superstition, homeopathic
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: PO
  • Date Collected: 11/3/21

Informant Data:

  • PO is a 21-year-old male Dartmouth student in the class of 2023.  He was born and raised in Schenectady, New York. Pete is a third baseman on the Men’s Varsity Baseball Team at Dartmouth. Pete has played baseball since he was six years old, and also enjoys fishing and golfing. A Government major, Pete plans on attending graduate school after Dartmouth.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Baseball players are some of the most superstitious athletes in the world. Baseball is a very mental sport, with preparation and focus being a big part of success – more than the physical aspect. Baseball is traditionally played more frequently than any other sport in America, often being played almost every day.
  • Social Context: This specific superstition was mentioned when the interviewee was asked about pre-game preparations. Baseball players often have regional superstitions or routines before facing a pitch that are shared with one another when players from all over the country. This particular superstition comes from the Schenectady/Troy/Saratoga region of New York State.

Item:

  • Right-handed batters tape their left wrist with white tape, and left-handed batters tape their right wrist with white tape. This is used to help remind the batter to keep the wrist locked while swinging a bat, making for more likely and more powerful contact with the ball. In this picture, we can see that Pete is a right-handed Tbatter, with his right wrist taped in white tape even though he is fielding a ball and not batting.

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

Transcript:

  • “I’m not sure where it started, but everyone in my area tapes their wrist of their bottom hand on their bat. We were told it helps you keep your wrist locked, but after I got stronger and didn’t need that anymore it just felt right. After a while it just became customary and made me feel more connected with the bat”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “I like taping my wrist because it reminds me of home, and it’s cool to see other players now at different colleges with the same white tape and know they’re from my region”

Collector’s Comments:

  • I liked how Pete was able to relate this regional superstition and not only bring it to college, but also use it as an indicator when he sees other people around at different schools from his region. I find this superstition to be especially effective after he said that it makes him feel more connected with the bat.

Collector’s Name:

Jack Cameron

Dartmouth College

Russ013 21F

Prof. Apresyan and Prof. Gronas

“Rally Possum”

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Rally Possum

Informant: Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.

Verbal Lore: Folk speach, slang, – associated:urban legend, material, tradition, ritual, superstition, charm

English

United States of America

Context: A Rally Possum is in reference to an event that happened several weeks ago, where a possum wandered out onto a baseball field where LSU ( Louisiana State University) was losing to Arkansas by 8 or 9points. the delay caused by the possum, allowed the LSU team to rally and eventually go on to win the game and the next 11 games after that. The team and the fans began using the term in reference to the possum because they believed it to be a charm for good luck and have quickly developed a ritual of carrying around stuffed possums or wearing  rally possum shirts and and it is turning into a tradition.

Transcript:

“Lastly, new traditions are always being developed. New Orleanians and Louisana-ans are crazy about their sports teams, now the LSU baseball team has a ‘rally possum’. It seem that during a recent LSU game agains Arkansas, LSU was trailing by  8 or 9 runs. A possum got out onto the field, causing a delay in play. After the game resumed  LSU rallied and won that game and went on  to win the next  11 subsequent  games. Thus now the players carry around a stuffed possum in the dugout and fans can buy  ‘rally possum’  shirts.”

Collectors commentary: As mentioned above, the Rally Possum phenomenon is a mix of multiple folklores, even if we are specifically trying to focus on the folk speach term itself. Regardless of the mixture of types and genres it is a very new development and may fall into obscurity by this time next year, but at the moment, the term and the superstition, ritual and tradition, is on every LSU baseball fan’s mind and tongues right now. Rally Possum has been transmitted orally from fan to fan and even orally across the TV, it has also been written about in News outlets, but their is no specific author to the term or originator of the rituals, it is merely a folklore that is unique to the folk group of LSU baseball fans, many of whom live in and are from New Orleans.

Key words: New Orleans, Rally Possum, LSU, Arkansas, baseball