Random Baseball Players With All Time Weirdest Superstitions (12 items)

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  (#1) Moisés Alou

  • Right fielder, Left fielder

  Moises Alou was one of the last hitters to not wear batting gloves to the plate. To avoid crazy callouses, Alou used his own organic method: he urinated on his hands to “toughen them up.”

  Surprisingly, there is a bit of science to back his logic. Urine contains urea, which is frequently used in moisturizers to soften skin. Alou played for 17 seasons, and in 1,942 career games, had a batting average of .303 with 2,134 hits, 421 doubles, 332 home runs, and 1,287 runs batted in. His method must have worked but we don't plan to test it.
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  (#2) Jason Giambi

  • Designated hitter, First baseman

  A player in a slump will find any way they can to get back on track. Possibly no other player in history went as far as Jason Giambi - or at least they won’t admit it.

  A former Yankee and Athletic, Giambi admitted he'll wear a gold thong beneath his uniform when he needs to overcome a slump. Apparently he kept the thing in his locker during his days with the Athletics and brought it with him to New York, where teammates have tried wearing it, too. How does that work while wearing a cup? So many questions. 
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  (#3) Jim Leyland

  • Manager

  Curmudgeonly manager Jim Leyland, who won over 1,700 games in his career, picked up a couple less-than lovely superstitions while managing the Detroit Tigers. First, in 2011 he smoked a cigar at some point during one of the team's winning streaks, and decided to smoke one every day until they lost.

  He also started wearing the same baseball socks every day at some point during the streak, along with the same pair of underwear. “I will wear these underwear until we lose,” Leyland said. “I can tell you that right now. And they will not be washed. And I don't give a (expletive) who knows it.”
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  (#4) Babe Ruth

  • Right fielder, Outfielder, Left fielder, Pitcher

  Babe Ruth — "The Bambino" and "The Sultan of Swat" began his 22-year MLB career as an amazing left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees, ending up with 714 career home runs.

  Ruth had a few superstitions up his sleeve, or rather, up his pants. First, he made sure to step on second base whenever he jogged in from right field. He would even run out from the dugout and kick it before the next half-inning began if he forgot. He refused to allow teammates to borrow a bat from him, claiming that every bat had a certain number of hits in it and there was no way he was giving one away to someone else. He also frequently wore women’s silken stockings during time off from the game, believing they prevented batting slumps. 
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  (#5) Turk Wendell

  • Pitcher

  If there was an award for the most superstitions, that would go to pitcher Turk Wendell, who played between 1999 and 2004. Wendell was never without four pieces of black licorice shoved into his mouth while pitching. After an inning ended, he would jump kangaroo-style over the foul line and into the dugout where he would spit out the licorice and immediately start brush his teeth. Then it would start all over again.

  Wendell also wore the claws and teeth of animals that he had personally killed as a good luck charm and insisted that the umpire roll the ball to the mound rather than simply throw it to him. Whenever he began a new inning, Wendell would turn and wave to the center fielder and wait for him to wave back before proceeding, and whenever his catcher stood, Wendell would crouch down. He also wore number 99 in honor of  Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn, Charlie Sheen’s character in the 1989 comedy Major League. 

  Wendell later signed a three-year, $9,999,999.99 contract with the Mets after telling his agent, "If I could ever get all nines, let's do it."
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  (#6) Richie Ashburn

  • Outfielder, Center fielder

  No, not old haggard women, but actual wooden bats. Center fielder Richie Ashburn was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995, but not before everyone knew about his little secret. He reportedly had a habit of keeping successful baseball bats in bed with him to make sure clubhouse attendants didn’t misplace them. According to Ashburn, he would sleep with the bats in his bed. This prompted him to quip on the air: “I’ve slept with a lot of old bats.”
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  (#7) Satchel Paige

  • Pitcher

  Satchel Paige is known as one of the greatest major league pitchers in history — and one of the oldest. In 1948, at age 42, he was the oldest major league rookie while playing for the Cleveland Indians. He played with the St. Louis Browns until age 47, and represented them in the All-Star Game in 1952 and 1953. In 1971, he became the first Negro leagues player to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

  His secret? A little elbow grease — literally.

  Paige was able to pitch nine innings each time he took the mound, something he attributed to rubbing his pitching arm down with axle grease before each game. 
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  (#8) Larry Walker

  • Right fielder, Outfielder

  Maybe it’s because baseball includes three strikes and three outs in an inning. Or maybe retired Expo Larry Walker was just a weirdo. For whatever reason, Walker obsessed over the number three. He would set his alarm for 33 minutes past the hour, wore the number 33 and took batting practice swings in multiples of three. But it didn’t stop there.

  While with the Expos — a team that signed him for $3 in 1993 — he bought 33 tickets for 33 disadvantaged kids and seated them in section 333. In his personal life, he got married on November third at 3:33 p.m., which unfortunately, didn’t work out. He got divorced — yes, three years later — and his ex-wife landed a three million dollar settlement. Good thing his lucky number wasn’t 100.
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  (#9) Max Scherzer

  • Pitcher

  It turns out that sometimes the best superstition is not telling people about your superstitions. Pitcher Max Scherzer has quite an impressive resume — he was only the tenth pitcher in history to win at least three Cy Young Awards, and is the sixth pitcher to record two no-hitters in the same season.

  There are a couple quirky things that he does, like eating a huge roast beef sandwich before each start or wearing his shorts backwards. But his biggest superstition? “He has this superstition on top of everything else that you don’t talk about your superstitions,” his wife said. “There’s a few I know, a few others that I only think I know.”
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  (#10) Derek Holland

  • Relief pitcher, Starting pitcher

  Professional athletes allegedly treat their bodies like temples, only putting in quality goods. Not so with pitcher Derek Holland, who would gorge himself on fast food before a start.

  His typical Taco Bell order included: “Four cheesy gordita crunches with cool ranch taco shells, a spicy volcano burrito, a chicken quesadilla and to finish it all off, [I’d] have a caramel apple empanada," he explained. "That used to actually be my pregame meal. Not at the stadium, but the night before. I would crush Taco Bell or Wendy’s guaranteed.” He had a fastball that topped out at 95 mph, so no wonder he was throwing some gas.
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  (#11) Wade Boggs

  • Third baseman

  Hall of Fame third baseman Wade Boggs enjoyed an 18-year career that included appearances in 12 All-Star Games and a 1996 World Series win with the Yankees. When he retired at the end of the ’99 season, he had a .328 career batting average and over 3,000 hits.

  And he owes it all to chicken.

  Boggs would eat chicken before each game (earning him the nickname “Chicken Man”), and insisted on taking batting practice at 5:17, running sprints at 7:17, taking 150 grounders during warmups. and drawing the word “Chai” (Hebrew for “life”) in the dirt before coming up to bat. In 1984, Boggs even published a cookbook with his wife, Debbie, titled, not surprisingly: “Fowl Tips: My Favorite Chicken Recipes."
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  (#12) Mark McGwire

  • First baseman

  Mark McGwire became a household name during the 1998 Major League Baseball home run record chase. While with the Cardinals, McGwire set the major league single-season home run record with 70, which Barry Bonds broke three years later with 73. But an alleged steroid scandal might not even be the most questionable thing that he did.

  McGwire is said to have worn the same protective cup that he wore in high school during every game of his 16 seasons in the major leagues. Yes, an athlete who signed a $30 million dollar deal with the Cardinals used the same cup for 16 years. Although given the steroid use, you would have thought that he needed a smaller one.

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