As creatures of habit, baseball players are a uniquely superstitious bunch, adhering to strict routines and regimens, going to extreme lengths to replicate anything that they feel can create even the smallest advantage. It’s why Wade Boggs ate chicken before every game and why Jason Giambi, during a dry spell with the Yankees, wore a golden thong under his uniform, hoping it would break him out of a prolonged slump. It’s debatable whether any of these supposed good luck charms actually work (data on the effectiveness of playing in women’s underwear remains inconclusive), but that hasn’t deterred players from trying to change their fortune any way they can, leaving no stone unturned in their quest for greatness.
Which leads us to the Padres, who experienced one of the strangest scenes you’ll ever see on a major-league field, with Wednesday’s game disrupted by an interloping goose, crashing the party in a belligerent display of avian hubris. Inspired by the sheer hilarity of what transpired Wednesday, a wonderfully chaotic mess of wings, pecking beaks and exasperated grounds crew members trying to reason with the rogue trespasser, the Padres brought a feathered friend into their fold, debuting a nameless mallard at Friday’s batting practice.
While the crude replica looks nothing like the lawless goose that breached stadium security Wednesday night, in the Padres’ defense, model geese are tough to get on short notice. Time will tell if the duck, in all its plastic glory, shares any of the mystical qualities contained in Giambi’s infamous thong or the praying mantis the Royals adopted in 2016. But for long-suffering underdogs like the Padres, making only their seventh playoff appearance in 53 years of existence, what do they have to lose?
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