: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 8:30 PM —'04-'07 Hits: 14, 121, 018 - '08 Hits: 1, 476, 268

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Take Our Latest FN Poll: Pick The Red Sox MVP So Far In 2008

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BULLPEN ROADKILL

(Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

Sox Blow Third Straight 3-0 Lead, Bow To Orioles, 6-3

Bullpen Implodes Again, As Lopez, Hansen & Okajima Yield 4 Runs In 1.2 INN

Oki Coughs Up Salami To Old "Friend" Jay Payton To Seal The Loss

Varitek Clouts 4th HR, Goes 2-4 With RBI

Lester Cruises Through 5, Gives Up 2 ER In 6th

Sox Limp Home To Fenway Solidly In 2nd After Miserable Road Trip

Manny Makes Spectacular Catch On Millar Drive

(Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

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Broken Nail Puts Buchholz On 15-Day DL

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Put Johnny Pesky Back In The Red Sox Dugout

Join The Hundreds Who've Signed A Petition To Bud Selig

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New Ray Of Sophistication In Tampa

First-Place Rays Enhance New Stadium Chances

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REPORT: Julian Likely Headed West

Tavarez Designated For Assignment; May Become A Rockie Soon

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FN Baseball Quote Of The Day

Schill On When He Hopes To Pitch Off A Mound:

“I don’t know. I would imagine over the next couple of weeks, maybe a month.”

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Ric Glaub On Spawns & Seeds In The Bronx

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Get World Champion Red Sox Tickets From TicketCity! 

Buy The Editor-In-Chief's Book On The 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox

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BOOK REVIEW

Haunted Baseball
Ghosts, Curses, Legends, and Eerie Events
By Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon

Book Review by Susan Richards

No doubt about it – baseball is jammed full of individuals – players, stadium personnel, and fans who run the gamut from "quirky" and/or mildly superstitious to intensely paranormal. This fascinating book covers many of these characters and their unusual stories. Authors Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon have interviewed over 800 ball players alone who share amusing, freaky, and sometimes just plain strange incidents and “sensations” they have experienced or heard about in the world of baseball.

A good example of the type of stories related in this book (and one of my favorites) is in the chapter “The Bird and Jim Thome”. This story traces the friendship of then Cleveland Indian Jim Thome and Jimmy Warfield, the popular and well-respected Indian trainer. In July of 2002 Warfield died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. The team chose to play the game scheduled for that evening in his honor and it was during the game that a scruffy seagull appeared near the Indian dugout who “seemed resolved” to stay near the players, especially Thome who insisted on letting the bird “hang out” for the entire game. Cleveland’s starting pitcher for the night – C.C. Sabathia, assumed that the bird (strangely small and “scruffy” in appearance like Warfield) was, in fact, their trainer “saying his final good-byes and watching us”. Three days after the death of the beloved trainer, during the Memorial service held at the ballpark, the same scruffy seagull appeared again, flying “around the bases” as the closing remarks were made and disappearing into the night, never to be seen again. From genuinely moving stories like this Jim Thome one, to the more humorous ghostly sightings and experiences, the success of this book is in its connection to the people who love baseball and how well it relates the stories shared by those people. Plus, it's just plain fun (and yes, a little eerie as well) to read about Johnny Damon being “held down by a ghost” or Coco Crisp being spooked out by a “haunted elevator”.

Some very intriguing characters are spotlighted as well – Dr. David Fletcher and his quest to “clear the name” of Buck Weaver, disgraced third baseman for the infamous 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” and Becky Cornelius – the “Superfan with Superpowers” whose devotion to the Triple-A Iowa Cubs has created a clubhouse superstition that players ignore only at risk to their baseball careers. For those of us who are perhaps familiar with a baseball curse or two (the “Curse of the Bambino” and the “Curse of the Billy Goat” come immediately to mind) – these as well as quite a few others are thoroughly dissected by Bradley and Gordon – ever heard of “The Curse of Keith”? (as in Hernandez) How about “The Curse of the Rock”? (as in Rocky Colovito) or “The Curse of William Penn” (as in the founder of the state of Pennsylvania). You gotta read it to believe it! Whether you actually believe in ghosts, curses, or any of the “eerie events” documented in “Haunted Baseball” – it makes for one very entertaining read!

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

© 2008 FenwayNation.com—except Red Sox logo used in accordance with the Fair Use provision (section 107) of U.S. Copyright Act. This website is not affiliated with the Boston Red Sox, Major League Baseball or any other organization. Opinions expressed by FN columnists are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the full FN Board. Game photos courtesy of the Associated Press, Getty Images and/or Reuters. Sherm Feller material courtesy ShermFeller.com. OrigInal FenwayNation "Grafitti" Logo by Ric Glaub. Sounds of Fenway courtesy of Ballpark Magic .

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