Killing Chickens:

1. Killing Chickens: Baseball, Religion, and Superstition by Marck L. Beggs, Ph.D.

2. �Superstition is good for a ball player. It has psychological effects. It keeps a player's mind revolving around baseball.�  --Lefty O'Doul �I may never understand anything about religion, the cosmos, the origin of the universe, women or calculus, but I do know one thing with absolute certainty, alright maybe only one thing in total. There is a one surefire way to make a baseball game last longer than four hours: Uttering the following sentence, �Boy, this game is going along fast.� The player has sealed his own fate. Without fail, the next inning will involve an injury, six straight hits, four walks, two hit batters, and an umpire dispute.� --Will Rosellini

3. Common Baseball Superstitions Crossing bats Clergy Spitting Dirty uniforms Touching bases No-hitters Red-headed women / women's hairpins Sports Illustrated cover

4. Chicago Cubs' Billy Goat Curse Chicago tavern owner �Billy Goat� Sianis and his goat, Murphy, denied entry into game four of 1945 World Series (even though goat had ticket) �because the goat smells.�

5. Sianis cast a goat curse: �Cubs, they not gonna win anymore.� Cubs lost World Series. Sianis sent telegram to P. K. Wrigley: �Who smells now?�

6. Sianis's nephew, Sam, twice attempted to enter Wrigley Field, in 1972 & 1983, with new goat, Socrates, wearing a sign that read: �All is forgiven. Let me lead the Cubs to the pennant.� Denied entry by Cub's management both times.

7. Result: Cubs win no pennants since 1945 (and no World Series since 1908). Sianis imspiration for SNL �Cheezborger!� sketch. Numerous attempts at curse removal and exorcisms. 13 October 2003: Curse officially lifted by Sam Sianis (MLB.com)

8. John McGraw & Charles Victory Faust McGraw managed the NY Giants for 31 years (10 pennants and 3 World Series). Charles Victory Faust was �the village idiot of Marion, Kansas.� (Suffered from hebephrenia.)

9. July 28, 1911: Faust showed up unannounced at Giants' hotel in St. Louis, asking for tryout. Told the grumpy (but ultra-superstitious) McGraw that a fortune-teller had informed him that he would lead the Giants to a pennant. Tryout was a joke, but McGraw kept Faust on team (uniform, but no contract).

10. Fans loved Faust (although he never played except in two meaningless games). Giants went 37-2 with Faust on bench at the end of 1911 season. Giants went on to win three pennants in a row. In 1914, Faust left and the Giants immediately started losing. Faust died in 1915. E. L. Doctotow devoted a chapter to Faust in Ragtime: �a pathetic pantomime of his own solitude.�

11. Left-handedness John King & Paul Fisher (�wrong-handed�) Cultural folklore & superstitions Religious folklore & superstitions: �And before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world...' Then shall He say into them on the left hand, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels...'�

12. Superstition From supersisto, "to stand in terror of the deity" (Cicero). "Those who for whole days prayed and offered sacrifice that their children might survive them, were called superstitious" (Cicero). "Superstition is the baseless fear of the gods, religion the pious worship" (Cicero). According to Isidore of Seville: "observances added on to prescribed or established worship.� Catholic Encyclopedia

13. �Superstition is a term used by critics for a belief that is not based on reason. This belief may be faith based on revealed truth or it may be related to magical thinking. Critics argue that it arises from ignorance or fear.� �Some argue that superstition springs from religious feelings that are misdirected or unenlightened, which leads in some cases to rigor in religious opinions or practice, and in other cases to belief in extraordinary events or in charms, omens, and prognostics.� �Whatever the cause, superstition can lead to a disregard of reason under the false assumption of a divine or paranormal form of control over the universe�. An airline passenger might believe that it is a medal of St Christopher (traditional patron saint of travelers) that keeps him safe in the air, rather than the fact that airplanes statistically crash very rarely.� Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

14. Superstition has been defined as "other people's religious beliefs". Similarly a "cult" may be defined as "other people's organized religion". A more precise way of defining "superstition" is "a belief in cause and effect relationships which leads to systematic, repetitive behavior which is totally ineffective in accomplishing what it claims it can accomplish, but this system of belief and behavior is never subjected to scientific scrutiny by those who believe, and repeatedly practice, it". This is "superstition". It is the basis of organized religion. John David Garcia �Religion, Superstition, and Spirituality�

15. The End