Field of Magic, Baseball’s Superstitions, Curses and Taboos by John Cairney (review)
Notice bibliographique
Résumé
Reviewed by: Field of Magic, Baseball's Superstitions, Curses and Taboos by John Cairney Lisa Alexander John Cairney. Field of Magic, Baseball's Superstitions, Curses and Taboos. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2023. 215 pp. Paperback, $29.95. Field of Magic, Baseball's Superstitions, Curses and Taboos is a self-explanatory title if ever there were one. Equal parts history and psychology rumination, John Cairney's book provides numerous examples of just how superstitious and sometimes illogical baseball players and fans can be about phenomena that cannot be objectively verified and asks whether baseball players and fans are more superstitious than those of other organized sports. Cairney divides his inquiry into four groupings: rituals, fetishes, curses, and taboos, and provides examples past and present of each. Rituals feel like the most well-known of the categories and can be individualized or collective in nature. We often see players crossing themselves before every at bat and, of course, fans sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch. At the same time, the story of players who urinated on their hands as part of their pregame ritual could best be described as interesting. Fetishes "refers to a person, animal, or object that has been ascribed supernatural powers and is viewed as a source of magic" (49). Most of us are already familiar with fetishes such as rabbit's feet, four-leaf clovers, and the Angels' rally monkey. In addition most teams have a mascot of some kind whose original role was to function as a good luck charm or fetish but today functions more as a master of ceremonies for ballpark entertainment. Cairney presents the history of human mascots such as Eddie Bennett (of the Yankees and White Sox), Little Ray Kelly (Yankees), and Nelson de la Rosa (Red Sox), which are less likely to appear in today's game. [End Page 116] The most fascinating chapter of the book brings to mind the Albert King blues classic "Born Under a Bad Sign." The depth and breadth of curses Cairney discusses in chapter three was surprising. Naturally the first two curses discussed in the chapter are the Curse of the Bambino and the Curse of the Billy Goat. The chapter goes on to debunk The Home Run Derby Curse, update us on the failed attempts to exorcise The Curse of Colonel Sanders (the Hanshin Tigers), the reversal of The Curse of William "Billy" Penn (Philadelphia), and explain the $50,000 the Yankees spent to dig up part of the foundation of the new Yankee Stadium to avert a curse from an impassioned Red Sox fan. Readers may or may not be surprised to learn that there are also multiple baseball curses attributed to Taylor Swift concerts. The entire chapter is a revelation. Chapter four deals with taboos or "prohibitions of behavior or beliefs [that if] broken, it can result in serious social sanctioning including disapproval, shunning, and even legal action" (119). One of the popular taboos is about pitchers throwing a no-hitter or perfect game. In many instances teammates will not talk to the pitcher and will segregate said pitcher in the dugout if the milestone is imminent. Pitchers typically won't speak about this while it's happening unless they're former White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle who famously walked up to every teammate in the dugout and asked if they knew he was throwing a perfect game and a no-hitter (he achieved the former in 2007 and the latter in 2009). The most infamous taboos surround cheating and gambling. Cairney does not go into detail on this issue, which is understandable— there are entire books written on these topics; however, classifying cheating and gambling as "taboo" is a different spin, for sure. Several unwritten rules of the game make an appearance in this chapter, and though it is mentioned earlier in the chapter (Cairney acknowledges that many of the examples could exist in different sections of the book), Jose Bautista's epic bat flip is the most interesting example explored. In discussing Bautista versus the Texas Rangers, Cairney does parse out the fact that "hot dogging" may violate the unwritten rules taboo in the United States...
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Prédiction distillée sur la base complète
Imitation des enseignantsNi prévalence calibrée, ni vérité terrain. Validation humaine à venir. Apprise à partir de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Codex et de 10 348 étiquettes directes de Gemma. Le mode candidate est l'union des têtes enseignantes seuillées; le consensus est leur intersection. Ces sorties portent le statut machine_predicted_unvalidated et ne sont ni des étiquettes humaines ni des étiquettes directes de modèles de pointe.
Scores Codex et Gemma par catégorie
| Catégorie | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Métarecherche | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens strict) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens large) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Bibliométrie | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Études des sciences et des technologies | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Communication savante | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Science ouverte | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Intégrité de la recherche | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Charge utile insuffisante (le modèle a refusé de juger) | 0,075 | 0,000 |
Scores machine (provisoires)
Les deux têtes enseignantes du modèle étudiant, lues sur ce travail. Un score ordonne la base pour la relecture; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie, et le statut de validation accompagne chaque rangée tel quel.
Scores de référence d'un modèle non mature (critères de maturité non atteints, 7 itérations). Un score ordonne; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · tel quel depuis la passe de notation : score_only signifie que le nombre peut ordonner les travaux, et qu'aucune étiquette de catégorie n'en découleClassification
machine, non validéePrédiction automatique; un appel candidat d’une seule tête enseignante, pas un consensus.
Le détail, modèle par modèle et score par score, se trouve en fin de page sous « Comment cette classification a été obtenue ».