Please Share With the Class...

Your fan rituals! Your musicals Mount Rushmore! Your thoughts on Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau!

We are officially in the middle of the baseball playoffs, with the American League and National League Championship Serieseseseses kicking off Sunday and Monday, respectively. As of my writing this (on Monday night), Seattle is up on the Toronto Blue Jays two games to none in the American League battle, and the Dodgers just barely eked out a win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League. I am a lifelong Dodgers fan — my mother was at Sandy Koufax’s perfect game in 1965! — and my husband Jim is a lifelong Brewers fan, so as you can imagine, the mood in my home is currently fraught. (FWIW, the Dodgers won the World Series just last year, and the Brewers have never won, so if Milwaukee beats us, I will have no issue with cheering them on in the next round.) But I am not here to lay out my baseball-related marital discord.¹ I am here to talk about sports superstitions.

Baseball is (arguably) the most superstitious American sport.² Nobody talks to a pitcher if they’ve got a no-hitter brewing. When they’re on a streak, players don’t cut their hair, or shave, or sometimes even bathe. Some of them won’t touch the foul ball lines when heading onto the field, or will touch a base on the way to the outfield, or indulge in a lengthy pre-batting ritual (although there is less of this now that baseball is more persnickety about time), or eat the same meal before every game. On my TV just now, Big Papi told the announcing crew that he wanted the Mariners to win the American League series, so he was picking the Blue Jays to win today’s game. Superstitious logic!

Wikipedia has a totally bizarre and very era-specific round-up:

Others include routines such as eating only chicken before a game like Wade Boggs, pitcher Justin Verlander eating three crunchy taco supremes (no tomato), a cheesy gordita crunch and a Mexican Pizza (no tomato) from Taco Bell, before every start, and drawing in the dirt in the batter’s box before an at bat. Justin Morneau…stopp[ing] by the same Jimmy John’s Gourmet Subs — located on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota — and ordering the same sandwich from the menu: Turkey Tom with no sprouts. Afterwards, he drinks a Slurpee from a Slurpee machine in the Twins’ clubhouse made of one-half Mountain Dew, one-half red or orange flavor. In 2013, Bryce Harper said on Jimmy Kimmel Live that he eats waffles and takes seven showers before games.

Verlander must have been shook when Taco Bell took the Mexican Pizza off the menu.³ Bleacher Report has a more extensive collection of superstitions. Their piece dates from 2018, so some of it is outdated (for example, Nintendo hasn’t owned the Mariners since 2016), but a lot of it is funny and some of it is gross. Get a new cup, Mark McGuire!!! Who is still wearing their high school underwear?

As entertaining as that is, we all know that professional athletes can be weirdos. My real interest lies in the superstitious traditions of fans. OBJECTIVELY, we know that our behavior doesn’t actually affect the outcome of the game… probably? And yet, when the Dodgers were losing a game during the previous series against the Phillies, I happened to glance at my wrist and realize that I’d forgotten to put on my Dodgers bracelets, which I’d worn for all earlier victories. I gasped and ran into the other room and put them on, but it was too late. That loss was my fault, maybe! I wore the same shirt for every game in the 2020 World Series, which the Dodgers did win. There have been important games — not just in baseball! This applies also to my football and basketball psychosis! — where I have crouched in the exact same spot on the sofa, or, occasionally, on the floor. I cannot go watch that pivotal game at a bar! I have to watch it at home, in case I need to be lying under the coffee table. Yes, this might be ridiculous but if every fan is doing their own little important and specific ritual, who is to say that the collective power of communal vibes aren’t doing….something? We don’t know that they are, but we also don’t know that they’re not.

All of which is to say: I want to know your silliest – and/or most effective – fan superstitions. Do you have A Shirt? (Heather, if I recall correctly, wore the same jersey for every game Notre Dame played last season, and they did get to the championship.⁴) Do you eat the same meal, or sit at the same spot? This dude on the Dodgers subreddit eats a steak before every game; this cannot be good for him! Last year, the Dodgers lost every game my husband went to, and I considered banning him from the stadium for life. (Luckily, he turned it around this year and is undefeated in person in 2025.) Do you have to take the same route to the ballpark, if you’re going? Do you have a ritual? Please share with the class.

Go Dodgers!

— Jessica

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So Yeah, That Les Misérables is a Pretty Good Show

My kids love prisoners, and revolutions, and muskets, and whatnot, so naturally Kevin and I decided we should take them to see Les Mis this past weekend — a treat for them because of the aforementioned, and for us because somehow neither of us had seen it since high school,⁵ even though I could run the whole thing in my head at a moment’s notice and be relatively accurate.

I am happy to report that Les Mis still slaps. Eponine is still alone, the chairs at the empty tables are still likewise unoccupied, the people sing the song of angry men, dreams still turn to sha-a-A-AAA-AAAAAAME, Valjean and Javert still see each other plain, everyone you like still dies,⁶ and you still might quietly think to yourself that the truth that once was spoken, which we are to remember — “To love another person is to see the face of God” — should have been uttered earlier in the show as well so that this would be a callback. But you will also still tear up at the gorgeous crescendos and the idealism and the yearning, and yes, the dying and the vacant furniture. Not that I didn’t have notes…

• You’ll have to help me with this one: I could swear I saw a staging where Marius sings “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” at the remnants of the Barricade/the place where they caroused at said chairs and tables. Which not only makes more sense — “Here they talked of revolution, here it was they lit the flame” — but which made it so much more affecting when he looked around the set and they weren’t there. Did I hallucinate that? Did anyone else see that version?⁷ This one has Marius alone on-stage surrounded by basically small votive candles placed on the ground during “Turning,” and though his dead friends still show up and pick most of them up and then he blows out the last one, it’s not as touching. I can’t even remember if they caroused at chairs and tables first place, actually, which seems like a real oversight. I want to be WRECKED during this song and I was only mildly stirred. RUIN ME, MARIUS.

• Also, side note, our Marius was LOVELY but I don’t envy anyone who takes this part because Michael Ball was IT and always will be. This isn’t even his best performance and I dare you not to get chills:

• Watching that clip solidified for me that I didn’t think the orchestration was great on this tour. The music on the above performance gives the perfect assist; I found it rather lacking at similar moments on Sunday. However, the sound on the actors was super. Is that a trade-off? Do we NEED that trade-off?

• Musicals are living, breathing creations that don’t wait for a revival to be tweaked and updated — we talked about this a little when I wrote about the forthcoming new Chess, the extreme poster child for Let’s Just Redo This Whole Thing, Honestly — so, because I know the original West End production the best, I’m still thrown off by the lyrical changes and additions that have compounded over the years. Some of which feel a little bit like, “Do you get it? Do you get what’s happening here? Better just underline it again.” For example, Eponine spends a LOT of time before “On My Own” telling us that she’s in love with Marius and he doesn’t notice it, which sort of undercuts the agony of the song being about how Eponine is in love with Marius and he doesn’t notice it. I know some of that was in there before, but it felt like MORE this time. I also didn’t remember Valjean singing “Bring Him Home” as a reprise (“Bring Me Home,” bleh) before Cosette and Ghost Fantine show up to sing him to his grave. I don’t think we needed it. Dole out your reprises with care!

• On that note, the original act break was “Do You Hear The People Sing?” and then Act 2 began with Cosette and Marius falling in love — which they’ve also totally overhauled since the O.G. days — and then we got “One Day More.” Now, the show runs all the way through “One Day More” before the break. I understand it; for the same reason Hamilton doesn’t end Act 1 with “Yorktown,” they clearly wanted something more narratively propulsive to take you to intermission. But the consequence is that “Do You Hear The People Sing?” gets much shorter shrift — they just sort of gently stop singing it and move along in the plot — and it actually makes the reprise at the end less impactful, because you didn’t spend as much time being inspired by it the first time. I cannot cosign any production that cuts off “Do You Hear The People Sing?” at the knees; maybe that’s just THIS production, and not the way it has always been done since the change? But as good as “One Day More” is, and it rules, the other one is a stone-cold banger for a reason and needs to be honored as such, even if it means you have two stone-cold bangers in Act 1. One might even say two and a half, or even three, if you have fond feelings for “Red and Black.” I mean, who ever gets mad at multiple bangers? LET THEM BANG. [Edited to add: Someone in the comments pointed out this may be my/Young Heather’s memory being tricked by the layout of the soundtrack! This might be true! WHAT IF MY WHOLE LIFE IS A LIE!!!! However, I’m going to press onward because the spirit of the note stands: Do not cut DYHTPS off at the knees. — H]

• I am a purist and I do not think anyone needs to be inserting modern vocal runs into any of these songs, OR doing the popular “Star Spangled Banner” thing where they insert a different glory note before the actual note. Ahem, Fantine. Her voice was gorgeous, though, so I bravely dealt with all of it, I am a hero, etc.

• Vocally, the whole touring company is outstanding. Strangely, the one I responded to the least was Valjean. Some of this is not his fault — I think they have sped up “Who Am I?”, for one, and it doesn’t hit as hard when he’s barreling through it. But he also had a favored quirk of rushing through some of the words to be ahead of the music, then pausing and then holding the last bit longer to catch up again. However, the actor has done more than 1500 performances in this role, so maybe he’s just bored out of his skull and trying to keep it spicy for himself. He won me back with “Bring Him Home,” also, flawlessly delivered amid a string of gut-punch moments in Act 2.

• The iconic revolving stage is long gone — something Jessica and I have lamented at length. For touring productions, I can understand it, if they think it makes things logistically easier — although Hamilton managed, but then again, that was a smaller piece of their stage — but the rebooted version on Broadway (2014) also took it out, and the West End 2019 revival left it out. I have to say… I think I only missed it because I know about it, and remember thinking how cool it was back in Olden Times (1985) when the entire barricade rotated. My kids had no clue and they really liked the sets, and realistically, it did not ruin the show for me that it wasn’t there — but damn, nostalgia is hard to kick.

• I totally understand the temptation, but it felt like some of the male swings with one song line here and there (think “Look Down”) MILKED THE HELL OUT OF IT. I did honestly find it endearing though. Of course you have to do that. You can’t throw away your shot! I would do it too. Mom! I got a line!

• Boy, Hamilton really owes a lot to Les Mis — by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s own admission, too, I believe, but it really struck me here.⁸

In sum, I could watch this musical forever and it will always, always move me and inspire deep regret that I didn’t train my not-shitty voice when I had it. (Natural alto + too much sports cheering + zero training = you know that scene in Spaceballs where Daphne Zuniga is low in her cell and Barf is like, “Huh, she’s a bass”? This is me now.) I was delighted to share Les Mis with the kids, and hear Dylan talk at length about his concerns about some of the costume inaccuracies from a historical perspective, before launching into a long discussion of Napoleon and various revolutions that has now wiped my memory of what his costume objections even were. Pound for pound, heartstring pluck for heartstring pluck, Les Mis deserves its icon status and then some. If that is a hokey opinion, well, I own it. I change my mind every ten minutes about what my favorite song is and I gladly, earnestly, put it on the Musical Mount Rushmore.

But what goes next to it? Probably a Sondheim, but which one? I personally do not love Rent, but I understand that I am a major outlier there and that it was very influential, so does it get a spot? What about Phantom? Hamilton? Starlight Express? KIDDING. (AM I THOUGH.) (But seriously, Jamie Lloyd, let’s see you do that one next. I’m sure Diesel can be in his underwear at some point?) This doesn’t even include any of the older classics. My Fair Lady? The Sound of Music? (I would argue both movies now overshadow the stage versions, which may be why I dismiss them so easily, whereas NO ONE is picking the Les Mis or Phantom movies over the live show, SURELY.) Do we put Cats up there as a joke? Or even sincerely??!?!?!?! Macavity might not react well to being snubbed.

— Heather

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ICYMI

Go Home, Algorithm, You're Drunk

Ted Lasso and Fansville, Together At Last

"I Will Make Gambling So Chic, Gwyneth Paltrow Will Shit Her Capris"

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Last Call:

— Well, they certainly can’t argue they didn’t expect to be seen this time: Interstellar explorer Katy Perry and ex-PM Justin Trudeau stood on top of a boat in Santa Barbara and canoodled, thus confirming that they are in a place where mutual tongue and his hand on her bum is highly welcome. People’s sources want you to know that Justin has really pursued her, but “respectfully.” The U.S. version of the Sun, barely even a real publication as far as I know, has a hilarious piece that Yahoo parsed for intel claiming Justin is shocked Katy is interested in “a geek” like him, and that she’s thrilled “a respected politician” wants to date her. She is even willing to do the bare minimum for him!! Observe: Perry is reportedly also “actually a pretty good texter.” The insider added, “And if she’s interested in someone like she is with him, she’ll take the time to wish him good morning or see how his day went. She’s good like that.” Gosh. Ring out the wedding bells. — H

— This is a lovely piece in the New York Times about Diane Keaton’s singular, and iconic, style. The loss of Keaton stings! I have written like six different sentences here and they were all depressing. Suffice to say, if you are lucky enough to live for a while, people (celebrities and otherwise) start to die on you and it sucks! So I’m just going to note that I hope her kids find some comfort in how many of us share some small portion of their grief at her passing. — J

— Nancy Meyers also penned a really lovely remembrance of Diane Keaton. — J

— It seems likely that you’ll want to read this at

Ministry of Pop Culture

: Two Authors Talk About Soap Operas. It’s so good! —J

1. Jim wants me to clarify that I am being facetious here. I do not have a divorce attorney on speed-dial.

2. I don’t know if sports in other countries are more superstitious!

3. Allegedly, when he was in a slump in 2013, he ditched the Taco Bell (and briefly broke up with Kate Upton), but still. Surely this man felt a disturbance in the force.

4. I did, and I did not wash it until we lost (in fairness I also ONLY wore it during a game and then immediately changed). However, last season, I DID wash my Dodgers jersey after every win and that seemed to work. Sometimes hygiene wins! — H

5. Not counting the terrible movie. Also, I am not 100 percent sure if this is true in my case, but I can’t think of when I would have seen it in my 20s and I know I didn’t in my 30s or current decade, so… I think this is correct! (I saw it a bunch early on.) — H

6. “Except for Corsette!” Dylan said. Close enough. Note how he deleted Marius from the equation.

7. I DID!! This was the original staging that I saw and was surprised to NOT see the most recent time I saw Les Mis, which was like… 2018??? — J

8. I remember when my family saw Hamilton in Los Angeles, my mom turned to me in the line for the ladies room at the intermission and was like, “This REALLY reminds me of Les Mis.” I agree! This is not a complaint! —J