Looking at the Red Sox, one could get confused by the “look” that the majority of the team has—beards.
Many people are aware of the fairly new show on TV, a reality show and comedy called "Duck Dynasty." A group of brothers and their father, a family of sort, with some friends and employees, who make hand-held duck call whistles for a living, while all "sporting" long beards.
The characters are this side of the famed Hatfields and McCoys without the feud, but definitely the look of hillbillies. So a good number of the Boston Red Sox sport the same type of beards, maybe not as long, but at times they look comical mainly because of what these men stand for in professional baseball in the 21st century.
As for the characterization of the men on the TV show, for lack of a better description, they have developed the reputation for making high quality duck-call whistles. The Sox, who are as professional as any other team in Major League Baseball, are as good as any team that Boston has had in its history.
There are many stories of the Red Sox of old having a reputation for choking toward the end of the season. Over the past 10 seasons, the Boston franchise has changed that scenario because of six playoff appearances and winning the World Series in 2004 as the wild card and 2007 as the American League East Champs.
It has been a dry playoff quest for three consecutive seasons for the boys of Beantown, but the beards still hold significance for the team. It's an old idea of a sort for good luck — to remind the players of their goal to go all the way to the 2013 World Series.
Coaches and teams have always had superstitions, no matter the sport. I know a story of a late local basketball coach, who, when he and his team were on the bus traveling for a game, suddenly noticed that the driver was going a different way. Already 20 minutes into the trip, he jumped up and told the driver he was using the wrong route, making him turn around—because the current road was bad luck!
The driver turned the bus around, the game was played a little later than it was supposed to, but they won and that just "proved" he was right.
In baseball, if the players need a rally, they put their hats on upside down, known as the Rally Cap.
There are superstitions about touching the lines. Also in baseball, everyone avoids the foul lines. Some players will jump over the line to avoid contact. In tennis, the players will avoid touching lines during rest breaks and changeovers. In soccer, before a throw-in, the players will avoid touching the boundary lines. Same applies when making substitutions. Many athletes have good-luck charms. Other, more religious, players say a prayer for their support from up high. As some basketball players do the sign of the cross while at the foul line, so will baseball players in the batter’s box.
Michael Jordan would wear his college shorts (University of North Carolina) under his pro shorts for good luck. So came the development of the longer inseam in the current basketball uniform design. MJ started a new fashion and made a statement toward a new basketball trend that came about due to his personal quirky superstition or good-luck charm. It's been about 15 years with the new MJ style of hoop trunks.
Nearly every Sunday for the last 16 years on the PGA tour, Tiger Woods wore a red shirt. He usually wore the red in the final rounds because his mother told him so. She believed that as a Capricorn, Tiger's "power" is at his best when wearing the color. Red is also the color of Tiger’s Stanford University.
Famed hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, would put baby powder on the blades of his hockey sticks. He treated them like babies because he wanted to make sure he took care of what took care of him.
So, does the good luck beard give the Red Sox an advantage over their opponents? Not really! Or maybe so, because it might give them a bit of a psychological edge over their opponents — a feeling of empowerment from the personal side. There have been many wars won by nations of old or even now, who have believed they had God on their side. Don't know if God picks his teams or armies, but I do know there is a feeling of confidence that comes in the thinking that one has an edge over one's opponent through ulterior sources. Where's my rabbit's foot, and my Red Sox hat, and my Yankees shirt and game-winning tie? Cross your fingers!
