Maureen Whitehead, standing among the crowd of blue and white in downtown Toronto on Wednesday night, warms up to her George Springer. Jersey. But as the first pitch of the night's game between the Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers approached, superstition dictated that it would have to be thrown.
“It’s a jersey I can wear before the game and after the game, but I can’t wear it during the game,” she said. “Every time I put it on (during a game), they lost, so I was like, 'OK, that's enough with this.' But I love this jersey, so I want to wear it before and after.”
Another of Whitehead's superstitions involves a change of scenery in the fifth inning when she goes upstairs to the spare bedroom. Her husband Terry is not allowed in this room for the rest of the game. He says his wife will also banish him to another room in the house if he comes in while the Jays are winning.
That custom will be a little more difficult to maintain Wednesday for the couple, who took the GO train from Oakville, Ont., to be among the thousands of fans in the stands at Rogers Center for the screening of Game 5 of the World Series.
It's been a roller coaster week for Blue Jays fans as the team started with a heartbreaking 6-5 loss in an 18-inning game on Monday night but came back the next day with a 6-2 win over the defending World Series champion Dodgers.
The Jays earned their second straight win at Dodger Stadium, 6-1, on Wednesday night in a game in which Trey Yesavage set the record for strikeouts by a rookie pitcher. They'll return home for Friday's Game 6, which could be the highlight of the Fall Classic.
Many feel like there's a lot on the line since the Jays haven't been to the World Series since 1993, when they won their second straight championship. With such high stakes, it's normal for fans to cling to their superstitions, says University of Toronto psychology professor Steve Joordens.
Superstitions are common to people in situations where they have little control over an outcome that concerns them deeply. Superstition creates an “illusion of control” that certain rituals can influence how a situation develops, Joordens said.
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“All of these fans are anxious. The more fans they are, the more anxious they feel during the game. These rituals are a way to deal with that anxiety, to cope with stress, to provide some sense of control,” he said.
According to Joordens, it makes sense that baseball attracts fans who can be notoriously superstitious, given the amount of ritual built into the game itself. The batter approaches the plate, coaches and players communicate through hand signals, and stadiums play the same songs between innings to keep fans interested.
“The whole ball game is almost a ritual in which all the fans participate. And when they do it together, it creates a kind of team cohesion and sense of community,” he said. “It’s not unlike a religious experience where we dance back and forth.”
Joordens adds that there is something called “confirmation bias,” which gives people superstitions and causes them to buy into them.
“Essentially, confirmation bias says that when we do something ritualistic that shouldn't have any effect, but it's followed by something positive, we're very quick to say, 'Oh, see, that worked,'” he said.
Some of the biggest superstitions involve wearing or not wearing certain items of clothing, be it a tank top, T-shirt or even socks or underwear. Joordens says some fans also often feel forced to leave the room in order for their team to score a single goal.
For some fans, the positive omen may be much more literal. Jana Genge, who attended the game with her family after visiting from Guelph, Ont., said she saw blue jays in her backyard a few days this week and took it as a positive sign.
“I really believe it,” she said after the game, adding that she would also wear a lucky shirt during the game.
“Even though it's all magical thinking and fans don't really take control of games, sticking to superstitions can sometimes have a positive impact on a team,” Joordens said.
“From a team's perspective, when they see all these fans doing all these crazy things because of how much they care about how things turn out… it can really affect what happens,” he said.
“It's not really the metaphysical power of prayer that comes out when we do all these rituals, it's the psychological power of prayer… that comes out when we do all these rituals. It's our way of showing the team that we're engaged, we're involved, we care, we have a lot at stake.”
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