Superstitious Mets Finding Success By Avoiding All Things Willie Harris

Sometimes you go looking for stories and sometimes they just find you.  The other day I was standing around in the Mets' locker room shooting the breeze with Angel Pagan.  Angel was explaining to me the small changes he's made in his approach that has him hitting so well now after such a rough start to his season.

As he was talking I noticed a few Mets coming out of the training room and taking a circuitous path back to their respective lockers.  It looked like they were consciously veering around a particular locker almost as if there was one of those invisible dog fences around it.

I said, "Angel, what's up with that?  Whose locker is that over there?"

He replied, "That's Willie's"

"Wille Harris?" I asked.

"Yeah.  Some of the guys seem to think that everything he touches turns to outs.  You know how we are with our equipment and our underwear if we get into a good streak...."

I said, "That stuff is just ridiculous.  I can't believe anybody would believe that."

Angel said, "To each one's own, man.  Not everyone believes it.  See the locker just to the left of Willie?  That guy aint afraid of any superstitions."

"OK", I wondered,  "whose locker is that?"

"Scott Hairston's"

And then I noticed that the locker on the other side of Willie's was vacant.  Had to ask about it.  Angel told me that it had belonged to "Chin Lung Hu."   At this point my confidence in my position was waning.  Then before I had a chance to ask another question Angel whispered to me,  "Hey, watch this.  This is cool."

Then he yelled across the room to Justin Turner, "Hey, rook, come over here. I gotta tell you something."

Turner walked over, giving himself a lot of clearance as he passed by the now infamous Willie Harris locker.

"Yeah.  So what's so important?", he asked Pagan.

"I just saw Willie heading towards the dugout.  Says he wants to check out your bats since you been hittin' so good."

With that Turner started in a dead run out the door.  I could hear him yelling,  "YO WILLIE!  Keep your (bleeping) hands off my bats, man."

I turned back to Angel who at that time was laughing hysterically.  As he composed himself he said, "Believe me now?"

I didn't answer him directly but did ask how they handle the high fives that are so much a part of a baseball team's rituals especially after a teammate hits a homerun.

"Firstly, we've all mastered this technique of high-fiving Willie without making any contact.  And secondly,  when the hell's the last time any of us hit a homerun?"

Angel said he had to go out to shag some flies and I held him back for just one more question.  I had to ask him where HIS locker is.

"It's way down there."  He pointed to a locker at the far end of the room.  "But to tell you the truth man.  Before I went on the DL it was right here." 

And with that he pointed to the locker just two away from Willie Harris'.

All articles featured on The Apple are fictitious. No Mets were harmed in the writing of this story. Story by Larry Smith.  You can follow Larry Smith on twitter @dr4sight

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