With spring approaching fast, along with it comes the start of baseball season. Some people may say that baseball is one of the most boring sports to watch, but when you look at some of the crazy superstitions the game holds, you may change your mind. 

Baseball is full of superstitions, also known as the game’s unwritten rules. One of the more basic superstitions is what players do before games. Most players find a routine they must complete in an exact order before every game to get themselves in the right head space. Senior Derek Smith has a pregame routine that he has used for years. 

“My routine before every game has been the same for years,” said Smith. “I start by listening to a playlist I made that I only listen to before games. Once we arrive at the field, I like to put all my gear on then find a partner and start practicing ground balls before we even stretch. Next I like to do a quick jog to the fence to get my blood pumping. Lastly, I touch the top of the dugout with my right hand on the way out to the field.”

One of the other superstitions that is very common in baseball is what pitchers do before every pitch. This superstition is one of the more noticeable ones to people watching the games. Some pitchers like to take their hat off every pitch; some pitchers take a lap around the mound before the pitch. Senior Tucker Entsminger makes sure to get in the right head space before every pitch. 

“Before every pitch, I like to take a deep breath and think. This helps me calm down,” said Entsminger. 

Lastly, maybe one of the biggest superstitions is the bad luck that comes from stepping on the baselines. If there was a book written on superstitions in baseball, not stepping on the base line would be the biggest part of the book. 

If you were to ask a baseball player about stepping on the line, nine times out of ten you would probably get the same response. After hearing the question, they would probably look at you with absolute disgust and tell you about how stepping on the line will completely kill your chances of having a good game. 

There is an exception to the rule, though. If you are running the bases during an inning and happen to step on the line, it will not affect your game. Stepping on the line only affects you when it happens and could have been avoided. Senior Tucker Hopkins has a strong opinion about stepping on the line.

“Stepping on the line is strictly against the rules,” said Hopkins.

The list of individual superstitions goes on and on, but there is one for the cats that is a team effort. It’s called twos. Twos happens whenever the batter gets a count of two balls, two strikes, and there are two outs. When this happens the players on the bench rub the bill of their hat and when the pitch is thrown they take it off and shake it. Twos is a very rare occurrence that might happen once a game. 

“ I don’t really know where this started, but we have been doing it since I was a freshman,” Smith said.  

While studies have shown that baseball loses the fans’ interest faster than most other sports, behind the scenes, it may be one of the most interesting.