The Magical Game: The Spirit and History of Baseball's Superstitions, Rituals, and Curses

This is the story of baseball’s rich magical history and the centuries-old culture of superstition in the sport. It is a love letter to the jinxes, curses, rituals and myths of baseball’s past and present — and to the innate mysticism of the game.

For more than 150 years, a magical culture has been central to the game of baseball: At the turn of the 20th century, a battle between two lucky mascots defined early World Series matchups. Soon after, two generational curses spawned decades of heartbreaking losses for the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox. Today, players like Bryce Harper perform at-bat rituals, fans refuse to wash the jerseys of their favorite players, and baseball people everywhere refuse to utter the words “no-hitter” before there’s been a hit.

In The Magical Game, journalist and converted baseball fan Addy Baird turns her reporter’s eye to her favorite sport, investigating the roots of these magical practices and telling the story of baseball’s long history of superstition, rituals, curses, jinxes, hoodoos, and hexes. Spanning three centuries of baseball history and three dozen more of magical history, Baird takes readers through fascinating, forgotten tidbits in the sport, untangles the game’s legends, and considers baseball’s uncertain future. In the face of recent MLB rule changes and the rise of advanced statistics, Baird looks at the many decades of concern about baseball’s declining popularity and the evolution of the sport, as well as why and how a culture of magic has remained strong at the core of the game for so many years.

Funny, poetic, and deeply researched, The Magical Game will make readers fall in love with baseball all over again.