redsmetz
10-10-2007, 07:36 PM
From the Plain Dealer comes this little piece. Somehow I don't think we can plan on Joe Girardi doing this if he becomes the Reds manager.
Can good-luck beards help Cleveland Indians win by a whisker?
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
In baseball, where a crushed line drive can turn into a double play and a flailing swing can produce a game-winning hit, it's no wonder players believe there's something more than physics controlling things.
Something called luck.
Superstitions abound, like stepping over -- never on -- the foul line, refusing to change socks during a streak, calling your mitt "pookie bear."
Or growing a beard.
For decades, hockey players have grown the "playoff beard." It's the belief that by looking like Chewbacca in a jock you can somehow scare away bad luck and win it all.
In recent years, athletes in other sports have sprouted superstitious stubble. Even fans are going Grizzly Adams (it's only a matter of time until the world is introduced to the fantasy-football playoff beard).
Tribe third baseman Casey Blake has been sporting a good-luck beard for most of the season.
"The fans have made it hard to shave it off," Blake told the Wichita Eagle. "People tell me all the time to keep it, my wife not being one of them."
Now comes the skipper. Since the playoffs started, manager Eric Wedge has skipped shaving. The result looks like he should be drinking the post-series champagne from a brown bag.
Wedge denies trying to cast any spells.
"Every now and again I decide not to shave," he told the Associated Press. "Nothing more than that."
The important question is: Does the beard work? It didn't for bearded Cavs in the 2006 playoffs; they stumbled against Detroit in the second round. But it did for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who led the Steelers to glory two years ago. And it did for St. Louis fans last season. They helped their underdog baseball team (sound familiar?) to a World Series title by growing beards.
Can it work here?
Only one way to find out.
Everybody, including that nun with the cookies, put down your razors till November.
Can good-luck beards help Cleveland Indians win by a whisker?
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
In baseball, where a crushed line drive can turn into a double play and a flailing swing can produce a game-winning hit, it's no wonder players believe there's something more than physics controlling things.
Something called luck.
Superstitions abound, like stepping over -- never on -- the foul line, refusing to change socks during a streak, calling your mitt "pookie bear."
Or growing a beard.
For decades, hockey players have grown the "playoff beard." It's the belief that by looking like Chewbacca in a jock you can somehow scare away bad luck and win it all.
In recent years, athletes in other sports have sprouted superstitious stubble. Even fans are going Grizzly Adams (it's only a matter of time until the world is introduced to the fantasy-football playoff beard).
Tribe third baseman Casey Blake has been sporting a good-luck beard for most of the season.
"The fans have made it hard to shave it off," Blake told the Wichita Eagle. "People tell me all the time to keep it, my wife not being one of them."
Now comes the skipper. Since the playoffs started, manager Eric Wedge has skipped shaving. The result looks like he should be drinking the post-series champagne from a brown bag.
Wedge denies trying to cast any spells.
"Every now and again I decide not to shave," he told the Associated Press. "Nothing more than that."
The important question is: Does the beard work? It didn't for bearded Cavs in the 2006 playoffs; they stumbled against Detroit in the second round. But it did for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who led the Steelers to glory two years ago. And it did for St. Louis fans last season. They helped their underdog baseball team (sound familiar?) to a World Series title by growing beards.
Can it work here?
Only one way to find out.
Everybody, including that nun with the cookies, put down your razors till November.