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Posted on 08/17/2012 2:20:04 PM PDT by EveningStar
Vin Scully in 1960:
It's insulting the listeners to make them think they're silly and superstitious enough to believe my telling them that a no-hitter is going will affect the game. I'm not breaking a precedent. Other announcers do the same. You see, no one expects a listener to hang on to every word for three hours. They leave the radio from time to time and this service must be rendered.
(Excerpt) Read more at awfulannouncing.com ...
If it made sense it wouldn’t be a superstition. But when you have a 162 game season superstitions add a little much needed flavor.
"In this day and age," Scully said, "I would have started in the seventh inning. 'Hey, call your friends, this guy is pitching a perfect game.' That's a major part of reporting the game now, getting other people to share in the experience. But in those days it was not done. It was a baseball superstition. You didn't speak of a perfect game."Source
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Greg Bartman concurs.
There are some superstitions that are deadly: not washing your socks or jock or under-jersey while you’re on a hitting streak, eating the same meal at every meal when you’re on a hitting streak, carrying your bat into Harlem when you’re on a hitting streak, and so on . . .
If having an announcer mention that a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter truly jinxes the no-hitter from being completed, then the announcer would certainly want to mention that a no-hitter is being thrown if the opposing team’s pitcher is the one who is throwing the no-hitter.
My family was at the Mariners game on Weds. - a perfect game. My brother-in-law didn’t want to jinx it by getting out of his seat to go get lunch. Diabetic, he almost fainted twice on the walk back to the car. I asked my wife “Why couldn’t someone else have got his lunch for him?”
“Oh..”
Baseball probably entertains the most superstitions or, perhaps, compulsions than any other sport. Tapping the plate, hitting the cleats with the bat (even when there is no dirt on them), crotch grabbing, wiping the hand on the blouse (pitchers),rubbing dirt on hands, spitting, etc. And, of course, mentioning a no-hitter is in progress.
I did the same thing when I went to my granddaughter’s high school graduation in May. I can remember my sons calling me, but I was really out of it. The next thing I remember was one of my sons pushing Pepsi down my throat.
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