To say that baseball players are superstitious is like saying grass is green. Unless you’re just really weird or horribly misinformed, it’s just impossible to argue. Still, Texas Rangers pitcher Bartolo Colon has a superstition that takes the cake.
Or, in this case, it takes the gum.
What Colon does with gum before starts and between innings is really something to behold. First, he takes the piece he was working on out of his mouth. Then, he takes a second piece and flattens in it his mouth. Then, he does the same with a third piece. Finally, he places the original piece between the two flat pieces and puts the whole gum sandwich in his mouth.
We've seen some crazy superstitions in baseball, but none may be stranger than Bartolo Colon's gum sandwiches. 😂pic.twitter.com/aQiE76e6Vy
— Stadium (@Stadium) May 9, 2018
On one hand, this seems weird, even for baseball standards. But Colon is nearly 45 and continuing to pitch at a high level.
Maybe the gum sandwich is what Ponce de León should have been looking for in his quest for the Fountain of Youth.