A baseball fan is highly superstitious, just as the sport itself is. Baseball people don't use words like kharma (a popular word these days). Instead, they speak of a "streak." He has a hitting streak, a home run streak, or the team has a winning streak. The pitcher has a streak as well, scoreless innings, strikeouts per game, wins. So, we do things to not disrupt the streak. Wear the same clothes. Not shave. Eat the same foods. It is all very rational. Baseball metrics types are there to ruin myth. You say a player seems to be better this year over last, and they will develop a quantifiable formula that make all statisticians in every profession proud and disprove your assumption.
I read a piece recently in a journal dedicated to the baseball metrics types (sabermatricians - Society of American Baseball Research [SABR] + metrics gives you that term) in which they set out to prove if Mike Royko's (former Chicago Tribune writer/editorialist and Cub baseball fan) assertions was true. His assertion was this: Any team that has three or more Chicago Cub players on it will not win a championship or post-season play berth. The metrics people went to work on this, but they speak like this: Assertion (theory). Formulas to be used to test the theory (how they intend on proving or disproving it). Methodology for selection of a statistical sampling (which teams that will be looked at in this article). Analysis (painful as it is to read, it can be interesting). Results.
It turned out that Mike Royko's assertion, as he sat in the press boxes with his colleagues chewing on a cigar, was correct. The Cubs take their bad luck with them, and any team that allows three or more to congregate in their ranks has given themselves the kiss of death. The opposite, then, is true of the Houston Astros. Former Astros have gone on to other teams to provide that catalyst necessary to develop into a great team. The Big Red Machine (Cincinnati Reds of the 1970s would be one with Cesar Geronimo, Joe Morgan, and a few others tossed in via a big trade). The Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001 (Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Steve Finley, and Luis Gonzalez) and more recently the Philadelphia Phillies. As a group of superstitious people, these kinds of things can influence decisions despite that rationally, you may say, "These three guys we can trade for are great in their respective positions. Snap them up!" Wait a minute, you know the old saying....
The disciples, mostly fishermen and from the sea, were a superstitious lot as well. Here they were under Christ's mentorship, learning through his lessons, healings and through his own words personally, and yet as they are on the lake (Mark 6:45 - 56 and the lake is also the Sea of Galilee), winds come up and make rowing difficult. "About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."
What are our "superstitions?" Not do something good enough in God's eyes? Do something that resulted in God punishing you with something? Maybe you would have gotten that job, raise, better crop, sale, or a healthier child if you had only been "better?" When do they rise up as we go through our daily walks? Do we turn to Christ immediately or attempt to struggle against the storm? Pray that we focus on Christ and that we pay attention to his words, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."
Hope Men's Ministry
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