WINNING WAYS CHAMPS RELY ON RITUALS.Byline: Amy Raisin raisin, in botany and cooking raisin, dried fruit of certain varieties of grapevines bearing grapes with a high content of sugar and solid flesh. Although the fruit is sometimes artificially dehydrated, it is usually sun-dried. Staff Writer NEWHALL - Hall of Fame-bound Wade Boggs Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player. his aging college shorts, and, for a couple of Hart High baseball players, it's bright blue Bubblicious Twisted Tornado gum. Some insist the rituals of athletes - from highly paid professionals to eager teens - border on obsessive, but the Hart High baseball team is sure it can trace its season's only loss to a momentary gum-chewing deviation. Moments before Hart's ill-fated April 17 game against Canyon High, shortstop Chris Valaika's 5-year-old brother stuffed two pieces of the hallowed hal·lowed adj. 1. Sanctified; consecrated: a hallowed cemetery. 2. Highly venerated; sacrosanct: our hallowed war heroes. gum in his mouth and altered the five-piece per game ritual. ``Right before we go out and stretch we have a piece,'' said catcher Nick Enciso. ``Then I put one in the first (inning) and both of us have one in the fourth - five in a pack.'' The 4-2 loss only strengthened their belief in the importance of adhering to the rigid customs, which will be on display today as Hart hosts Ventura High in the playoffs. Valaika's mom, Ilona, said her 10th-grade, baseball-loving son showed signs of the superstitious long before the blue gum caper caper, common name for members of the Capparidaceae, a family of tropical plants found chiefly in the Old World and closely related to the family Cruciferae (mustard family). . ``When he was maybe 10, he ate some powdered doughnuts and had some Dr Pepper one morning before a game and ended up hitting two or three home runs,'' she said, admitting that the strange pregame meal continued for about three years. And her part in the gum custom is essential. ``The rule is Chris has to bring it. I've been out at 9 or 10 at night before, driving around looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. Twisted Tornado.'' Hart coach Jim Ozella said there are lots of little superstitions - or ``mojos'' - not just among individual players, but also as a team. ``We always hit plastic balls before we take infield. And we always leave at 1:30 for local road trips, 1 p.m. for road trips to Burbank,'' he said. First-baseman Chris Gagnon and his teammates bleached their hair blond the night before their first game. ``Everybody was looking pretty ugly,'' said the 18-year-old, who after the loss to Canyon took the hair scare one step further and shaved his head. The Valencia High softball team, also first place in league and playing their first playoff today, has rituals of its own. There's an interesting twist on the ``high-five,'' as players hit the field and braids are threaded neatly on each player's head. But coach Donna Lee Donna Lee is a bebop jazz standard itself based on the chord changes of the traditional jazz standard "(Back Home Again in) Indiana".[1] It is named after the now-obscure bassist Donna Lee. was too superstitious to even elaborate on superstitions while still in playoff contention. ``You understand. It's just not something I want to do until after our season is over,'' said Lee, whose Foothill League championship team will host Glendale High today in a first-round playoff game Noun 1. playoff game - one game in the series of games constituting a playoff game - a single play of a sport or other contest; "the game lasted two hours" playoff - any final competition to determine a championship . CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Hart High shortstop Chris Valaika, left, and catcher Nick Enciso have chewed Bubblicious gum for every winning game this year. (2) Valencia High players Jessica Robinson Jessica Robinson could refer to any of the following individuals:
David R. Crane/Staff Photographer |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion