Bizarre baseball-fan rituals: Can anyone explain them to me?

[Redstone]

1) "Let's go (team name), clap-clap, clap-clap-clap...clap-clap!"
(Repeat two times, rising in pitch each time.)

2) (Organ): Deedle-dee deet, dee-dee...(crowd): CHARGE!
(Repeat two times, rising in pitch each time.)

3) Sitting (or standing) in the stands, and flipping the bill of your baseball cap to an upward orientation. That's going to influence the outcome of the game, exactly how?

Can anyone help me understand any of this?

Redstone

[SeattleGirl]

1. All I can tell you is that they are superstitions. Sports fans are

full of them.

Personally, I hate the "CHARGE!" thing.

I do have some of my own: If I need to go to the bathroom during a game, and the Mariners start playing really well when I'm in there, I'm afraid to come out.

If I'm standing in a certain place in the kitchen and the Mariners get a hit, I don't want to move, unless they start doing badly again, and then I will.

I have a baseball used by Jamie Moyer when he was with the Mariners that has a place of honor on top of the TV all through baseball season.

I have a number of Mariner's coffee cups, and I try to pick the "right one" every day.

And yes, I sound like a total whackadoodle, but that's what I do.

Do they REALLY have an influence on the game's outcome?

I doubt it.

But hey, I don't want to chance it!

[Redstone]

2. Jesus, you've got it BAD, don't you? I grew up trying to advise my father that

the teams he was watching on TV couldn't hear him yelling at them, until he beat the hell out of me to make me shut up.

Now I continue trying to explain the same concept to Mrs R...I don't get through to her any more than I did to the Old Man, but at least I don't get punched for trying to do so.

So no, you're not alone in your superstitions, but I HAVE to ask: Doesn't it get boring there in the bathroom when you're afraid to come out? Or do you have the foresight to stock it well with reading materials?

Redstone

[SeattleGirl]

3. I do have it BAD, that's true.

And I promise, even if you don't totally understand, that's okay with me.

It doesn't get boring in the bathroom. I have a radio in there. (The superstition in that case applies ONLY to the TV broadcast, not the radio one.)

:)

[Redstone]

4. Dang, you have it down to a SCIENCE, don't you? You should get together with Mrs R for a Patriots

game...I'll be in my office, far away on the other side of the house when you do.

But you two would have fun.

Redstone

[SeattleGirl]

6. I bet we would!

It would be especially nice if the Seahawks could play that Pats.

Lots of yelling, lots of angst, food all over the place, and two exhausted women at the end of the game.

Better lock the office door, Redstone!

[Redstone]

7. Lock the door? Do you think I'm CRAZY? Two attractive, adrenaline- and- estrogen- charged women

in my house in need of an outlet, and I'm going to LOCK MY DOOR?

I may be a bit unstable, but I'm NOT stupid.

Redstone

[SeattleGirl]

11. LOL!

I knew you were the kind of man I like, Redstone.

No, you are NOT stupid.

:hi:

[WCGreen]

5. The one we use to do, eat as many Hot Peppers as you can without

drinking any beer and then punching the guy who cracked first, was about to take off when some ass whipe invented the wave...

[Redstone]

Ah, the Hard Guy Pepper Contest. The contest that Mrs R would win without (and I mean this

literally) breaking a sweat.

I've seen her reduce SO many Hot Pepper Hard Guys to tears in Mexican restaurants over that last 17 years...trust me, she can eat hotter peppers than ANYONE you know.

Redstone

[WCGreen]

17. I have to settle for the mild pepper rings now to spice up my life...

[reyd reid reed]

8. There are some that drive me crazy...

some just irritate me a little bit but there are others that I immerse myself in.

Well, maybe not immerse, but you know what I mean. It's all about the jinx. The hoodoo and the warding off thereof.

:hi:

[Redstone]

9. Triple-R! do you have ANY idea how good it feels to hear from you, after so long without?

I'll bet you don't.

But it does, anyway. Trust me on this.

Redstone

[reyd reid reed]

10. Awwwwww....

:blush:

How've you been?

[Redstone]

16. Since you asked, I'll tell you the truth: It's been a real roller-coaster this summer.

A vicious MS attack cost me most of June, not to mention scaring Mrs R out of her wits. but I did recover enough to enable us to make three trips up North this summer: One for my cousin's wedding, one to visit Mrs R's cousin in Montreal, and one for Old Home Day in the Vermont town where I grew up.

Since August, the MS has abated (as it tends to do when the weather gets cooler), but the nerve-damage pain in my shoulder (what, should I expect to get a break?) has spiked big-time.

But I've said this before, and I'll tell you again: It's just chronic pain. It's not cancer, or heart disease, or any of the myriad of affliction that so many other people have to live with. so I will continue to count myself as a fortunate son of a bitch, and remnind myself of that fact every day.

I have to go and try to sleep now. But allow me again to say how god it is to hear from you, and to say how much I hope that all is well for you these days.

Redstone

[ellisonz]

12. Why do you hate America?

[Redstone]

13. For its freedoms, of course.

Redstone

[ellisonz]

15. If Americans weren't allowed to do stupid shit we would still be called the Colonies...

I mean, these aren't the natives:

[Redstone]

18. You do indeed have a point, there. I have my explanation now.

Redstone

[deadparrot]

14. Well, I don't think of the first two as superstitions...

I just see it as a way to get the crowd pumped, to keep their interest on the game, etc.

The "rally cap" phenomenon is stupid, though, I agree.