From time to time, baseball fans will see players do some strange things. Baseball is a sport rooted in superstition &- everything from jumping over the foul line to adjusting equipment are present.

Some superstitions are easy to spot. For instance, when the pitcher has a perfect game or no-hitter, his teammates will not speak to or sit by the pitcher or even mention the feat in progress. The belief is if someone bothers the pitcher, he will lose his focus and the history-making bid will end.

Superstitions are not just for younger players, either.

Former Major League Baseball player Nomar Garciaparra adjusted his batting gloves several times before entering the batters’ box and tapped his toes four or six times as he stepped into the box. This would be quite the chore if he did it once in an at-bat, but Garciaparra did it after every pitch.

While none of the baseball superstitions at Sacramento State are as extreme as Garciaparra’s, they are still present.

Freshmen infielder Carter Loud said he feels having routines and superstitions help the mental state of mind of a baseball player.

“When coming out of the dugout, I feel like jumping over the foul lines,” he said. “You see big leaguers do it. They jump over the foul lines, adjust their batting gloves, wear sunglasses and even use eye black. It is all a part of, “If you look good, you feel good, you play good.'”

He said the game of baseball is all about trial and error.

“I feel the reason that baseball players are so superstitious because baseball is a game of failure. And every time you do succeed, you feel something went right. Then that makes you want to repeat it over and over again,” Loud said.

Junior infielder Derrick Chung is an example of one Hornet who has a set routine when he comes to the plate. Chung said the reason he performs his routine is to get in tune with the pitcher.

“For hitters, we have a routine that we do before every at-bat,” Chung said. “For example, before I step into the batters’ box I will take a deep breath, then I will dig a hole into the box, then I look at the pitcher, swing my bat around, and then I face the pitcher. That just gets me in rhythm with the pitcher.”

For junior catcher Brent Hottman, his routine helps to keep him organized before the game.

“It’s a type of thing where you get into a routine of doing certain activities in specific order,” Hottman said. “For me, I put my jersey and socks on the same way every time. I have an order of what pieces of clothing go on first. And what I do before games is always the same.

Among the most superstitious – and routine-heavy positions is the pitcher. Sophomore pitcher Zach Morgan said when he was younger, he would write the name of his grandmother on the back of the pitchers’ mound before every game.

Morgan said one of his teammates at Shasta Junior College had an interesting superstition before every at-bat.

“There are people that I have played with who have some crazy superstitions,” he said. “Some worked and some didn’t. There was a guy I played with last year at my junior college who had the superstition of having the need to hit himself on the helmet as hard as he could before every pitch. He said that it helped him knock out the ghost from his brain and allowed him to concentrate.”

Hottman said superstitions can get players into bad routines if they rely on them too much.

“Superstitions I have heard can get you into bad habits,” Hottman said. “If something doesn’t go right a certain day and you do one thing different then you will be thinking about that and then your whole other set of routines or superstitions might be thrown off. They will then affect you on the playing field.”

Matt Harrington can be reached at [email protected]