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

by Addy Baird

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 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.

Genres: Sports, History, Nonfiction, Baseball

304 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication June 2, 2026

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I expected this to be a humorous collection of story’s or a list of baseballs most famous superstitions. This book absolutely has that; cue Derek Jeter wearing Jason Giambi’s famous gold thong to break a hitting slump. The objective of the book aims for something deeper, to investigate why players & fans buy into the jinxes, superstitions & the baseball gods in the modern era.

Baird identifies when humans first started these behaviors (hint 70,000 years ago) and traces when they first appeared in baseball and how they’ve changed over time. It’s incredibly well researched. She uses first hand accounts from players, newspaper articles from the 1800s and various studies to clearly trace something like the inception of the rally hat from inception to modern day.

I was particularly interested in the section comparing rituals within Japanese vs American ball. Would have loved more plus where Latin players land in the spectrum. Also loved all the details about how different things were 100 years ago. Really want to read Christy Matthewsons autobiography now. Personally could have used less of the “connecting it all to what it means to be human”. Wanted more baseball less meaning of life stuff.

All in all a good read and was pleasantly surprised by how much I learned!

[Jeremy Reppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains some interesting and amusing anecdotes. I particularly the story behind “Take me out to the ball game” and the verses of the song, not just the chorus fans sing at games. Also, the origin of Friday the 13th being unlucky. I was familiar with some of the superstitions and rituals of specific players but enjoyed learning about those of other players.

I liked that the author includes a wider discussion of superstitions and rituals and luck, why and how they developed, the “science” behind them, etc. and then explored those concepts in the realm of baseball. The comparison between rituals/superstitions of American and Japanese baseball players was interesting.

The author discusses some of the best known baseball curses, separating truth from fiction regarding the events surrounding the curses, and noting that the common denominator of “cursed” teams is actually bad management — such as the Red Sox taking more than a decade after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier to integrate the team, thus losing out on the talents and contributions of top black players.

The author also makes it personal by telling how her love of baseball and the Mets developed, as well as her own fears that she was a “jinx”, and how that impacted her. She also aptly describes what makes baseball such a magical game for so many.

One of my superstitions involves TV announcers. When watching Cardinals games, I hate it when the announcers talk about how an opposing hitter is due for a big or clutch hit or has not hit a home run in X games or at-bats. Intellectually I know that nothing the announcers say during the at-bat affects the outcome of the at-bat. However, there have been too many instances where announcers talk about an opposing player being “due” for a big hit and then it happening that it feels like the announcers are jinxing the Cardinals with their comments.

[Birdy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC e-copy of The Magical Game: The Spirit and History of Baseball’s Superstitions, Rituals, and Curses by Addy Baird.

Superstitions, curses, jinxes… the world is rife with them, but nowhere moreso than in the game of baseball. In this book, Addy Baird, an admittedly superstitious Mets fan herself, explores the history of “magic” within the game of baseball.

I consider myself to be a relatively new baseball fan, but an extremely passionate one nonetheless. After my first game (at least since I was a baby) three years ago, when I watched the Los Angeles Dodgers (the team I hadn’t even gone to the stadium to root for) walk it off against the Cubs late into the night, I was hooked. I could feel the magic of baseball from day one, that fandom culminating in two miraculous world series wins. So, I was excited to read this book and learn more about the history of the supernatural forces at play in the game of baseball.

There are so many great stories and anecdotes in this book—some that I was aware of, some that I wasn’t. The content is organized into chapters—rituals, jinxes, curses, luck, myths, etc.—with supporting ‘evidence’ under each headline. I liked this book, but I did often feel that there were a lot of repeated sentiments throughout, sentences that gave me déjà vu, like I’d read them already, and it happened more than once.

This is a nice little read for baseball fans new and old, and I especially loved that it was written by a woman. It isn’t often that you can pick up female-driven sports non-fiction, so I hope that the author considers writing more.

☆ ☆ ☆ - GOOD

[Addy Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this book, and I am really proud of it. I hope
you all enjoy it. 🥲