At-Bat Routines - Rituals of Mental Focus
Many professional baseball players have unique routines before stepping into the batter's box. While Ichiro's worldwide-famous gesture of extending his bat forward and pulling his sleeve is well known, NPB features numerous impressive routines. Tetsuto Yamada always taps his bat on the ground before entering the box, and Munetaka Murakami heightens his concentration with a distinctive bat twirl. These routines are not mere habits but mental preparation processes for peak performance. From a sports psychology perspective, routines are said to reduce anxiety and enhance concentration. However, for players, routines hold meaning beyond this. The belief that performing a specific action leads to success functions as a powerful psychological device generating confidence, even without rational basis. Many players experience slumps immediately after changing their routines, and the boundary between superstition and skill remains blurred.
Victory Rituals and Defeat Taboos
NPB players and teams maintain numerous rituals to invite victory and taboos to avoid defeat. Players who wear the same underwear throughout winning streaks, players who eat the same meal before every game, managers who sit in the same bench position. These behaviors are a form of conditioning that links specific actions to winning outcomes. Pitcher superstitions are particularly pronounced, with many pitchers strictly maintaining their game-day routines. Yu Darvish is known for always eating curry the day before pitching, and Masahiro Tanaka reportedly takes the same route to the stadium on game mornings. Team-wide superstitions also exist. The 2023 Hanshin Tigers continued using the word 'Are' (a code word to avoid directly saying 'championship') in the dugout before games, and actually won the league title. The 'Are' phenomenon was a prime example of the unity created when an entire team shares a superstition.
Stadium Jinxes and Urban Legends
Japanese professional baseball is rich with stadium-related jinxes and urban legends. The most famous is undoubtedly the Curse of Colonel Sanders associated with the Hanshin Tigers. After a Colonel Sanders statue was thrown into the Dotonbori River during the 1985 championship celebration, the Tigers failed to win the Japan Series for 24 years until the statue was recovered from the riverbed in 2009. Regardless of the curse's veracity, it was widely believed among fans. Each stadium has its own inherited jinxes, such as Koshien Stadium's Ivy Curse (the legend that trimming the exterior ivy causes poor performance) and Jingu Stadium's Yakult Umbrella Curse (the superstition that forgetting your umbrella leads to losses). These jinxes function as important components of fan culture despite lacking scientific basis. Sharing jinxes creates solidarity among fans and enriches the stadium experience.
Books about NPB jinxes are also fascinating
The Psychology of Superstition and Its Impact on Baseball Culture
Superstitions and jinxes are psychological coping mechanisms that humans naturally employ in highly uncertain situations. Baseball is a sport where failure far exceeds success, as the saying goes that batting .300 makes you elite. This high uncertainty drives players toward superstitious behavior. Psychologist Skinner demonstrated superstitious behavior through experiments linking coincidental outcomes to actions, and professional baseball players' superstitions are textbook examples of this phenomenon. However, the effects of superstition cannot be entirely dismissed. Similar to the placebo effect, the belief that performing a specific action ensures success may actually improve performance. Superstition culture symbolizes the human side of baseball. Even in the data-and-technology-driven baseball of the 2010s and 2020s, players continue to rely on domains that rationality alone cannot explain. This irrational belief is one of the factors that makes baseball compelling not merely as a numbers game but as human drama.
Mound Taboos and Pitcher Rituals
The pitcher's mound is sacred ground with its own set of taboos. Many hurlers insist on specific rosin bag placement or shape the dirt in particular patterns before delivering pitches. In NPB, several starters follow the custom of stepping onto the bullpen mound with their right foot first. The unwritten rule prohibiting any mention of a perfect game or no-hitter in progress is shared across Japanese and American baseball alike. Countless anecdotes tell of records crumbling the moment someone broke this taboo, and regardless of causation, the norm functions as a powerful code among players. Pitcher rituals tend to be stricter than batter routines, reflecting the greater tension produced by the solitary act of pitching.
Uniform Number Jinxes and Numerical Superstitions
In baseball, uniform numbers carry special significance and numerical superstitions influence player choices. In NPB, the number 18 is considered the ace pitcher's number, creating immense expectations that sometimes hinder performance under pressure. For the Hanshin Tigers, number 31 has been recognized as the power hitter's number since Masayuki Kakefu, drawing special attention to whoever inherits it. Meanwhile, the number 13, widely avoided in MLB, carries far less stigma in NPB, revealing cultural differences in numerical perception. While some Japanese players avoid 4 or 42, every MLB franchise has retired 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson. The meanings assigned to numbers are products of culture and history, and uniform number selection has become part of how players express their identity.
Fan Groups and Spectator Superstition Culture
Superstition culture extends beyond players to organized fan groups and spectators. NPB cheering is highly organized, and many fans believe that singing specific fight songs at precise moments contributes to scoring runs. Hiroshima Toyo Carp fans are known for their squat-cheering, and some claim that performing squats during certain innings shifts momentum. Superstitions around eating specific foods at the stadium exist across team fan communities. Hanshin fans have a tradition of eating curry at Koshien, while Chunichi fans treat miso-katsu as a good-luck meal. These spectator superstitions have zero causal connection to game outcomes, yet they strengthen solidarity among fans and enrich the stadium experience as a social function. Teams have incorporated this culture into merchandise planning and event management.
Pre-Game Meal Superstitions and the Clash With Sports Nutrition
Eating katsudon (fried pork cutlet on rice) before a game is a long-standing Japanese baseball superstition, as "katsu" doubles as the word for "win." From a sports nutrition standpoint, however, heavy fried food is far from ideal pre-game fuel. Multiple NPB clubs employ registered dietitians to design meal plans, yet balancing scientific guidance with each player's personal rituals remains a delicate task. Some players insist on udon noodles (a pun on "utsu," meaning to hit), while others avoid red-colored food entirely. Teams generally respect these beliefs rather than ban them outright, acknowledging the psychological stability they provide. The coexistence of evidence-based nutrition and irrational superstition at the dining table illustrates a unique tension embedded in the daily life of professional baseball players.
Obsessive Equipment Rituals and the Line Between Care and Superstition
Professional baseball players display extraordinary attachment to their equipment. Fielders who refuse to let their gloves get wet, hitters who replace grip tape at the slightest sign of wear, baserunning specialists who lace their spikes in a fixed sequence - these behaviors blend practical maintenance with deep superstition. Bats, in particular, are often described as having a soul. Many players forbid others from touching their bats, store them facing a specific direction, and send broken bats to shrines for ceremonial retirement. Each NPB club employs dedicated craftsmen who fulfill millimeter-precise customization requests. The boundary between rational equipment care and irrational ritual is blurred even for the players themselves, and the fusion of both elements supporting on-field performance is a hallmark of baseball culture.
How Superstitions Are Passed Down After Retirement
Baseball superstitions do not vanish when a player retires; they are frequently transmitted to the next generation through coaching and media commentary. It is not uncommon for coaches to recommend their own routines to young players, and some rituals become embedded in organizational culture. Hitting coaches may instruct proteges to fix the exact number of practice swings before a game, while pitching coaches insist on a particular warm-up sequence in the bullpen. At youth clinics hosted by former professionals, children are often told to develop their own good-luck habits. This vertical transmission ensures that superstition culture persists across generations. At the same time, the spread of science-based training has produced younger players who dismiss rituals entirely, creating a generational temperature gap. The tug-of-war between tradition and rationality is a microcosm of the baseball world itself.