As the World Series starts, a mathematician at the New Jersey Institute of Technology says the Rays have a 59% chance of winning. He has been right in 6 out of the last 8 Series. Baseball is chock full of player and team stats, so it's no surprise the algorithms to calculate odds are getting more sophisticated each year.
On the other hand, baseball is probably the most superstitious game there is. 7 out of this list of 10 most superstitious athletes come from baseball. The famous Curse of the Bambino supposedly kept the Red Sox from winning a World Series for 85 years.
Wade Boggs, a Hall of Famer who ended his career with the Rays, epitomized quirky routine
"* His diet includes chicken in nearly every meal.
* Leaves home for Tropicana Field at precisely 1:47 p.m.
* Plays warm-up game of catch with rookie shortstop David Lamb, and during that game of catch, always situates himself closest to the infield, facing the first-base line.
* When the center field clock at Tropicana Field strikes 4:37 p.m., he sprints toward third base, making sure to touch second base on the way.
* Once in position at third base, he waits for a coach to begin hitting warm-up ground balls.
* Once pregame warm-ups are complete, he makes a point of tapping third-base coach Greg Riddoch on the leg and tapping fists with first- base coach Billy Hatcher and manager Larry Rothschild.
* During pregame introduction of the Devil Rays lineup, he plays catch with Lamb again, always with his back to home plate.
* During the playing or singing of the national anthem, he shuffles his feet back and forth.
* When in the lineup as anything but the designated hitter, he is the first player out of the dugout as the Devil Rays take their positions to begin the game.
* As he runs to his position, he leaps over the base line. As he returns to the dugout between innings, he steps on the base line.
* Once he reaches his position (usually third base), he searches for three pebbles in the dirt and tosses them off the field.
* Between pitches, his routine is the same: swipe the dirt in front of him with his left foot, tap his glove two or three times, adjust his hat.
* When he comes to the plate to hit, he draws letters denoting the word chai - Hebrew for `life` - in the dirt with his cleat for luck.
* He goes to the plate with a piece of gum in his mouth. If he gets a hit, the gum stays in his mouth. If he makes an out, the gum goes.
* After the game, he goes home to a late supper of two hot dogs, a bag of barbecue potato chips and a glass of iced tea."
Come to think of it, screw the promising statistical odds. After all the guys "in the know" in Vegas pegged the Rays as 200 to 1 odds at the beginning of the season.
I hope the Rays are quirky as hell...we will need a few of Wade's 3,000+ hits in this series.
And hope they invoke the curse of the "Philly" Goat :)
