In the spring of 2006, Team Ecuador sent shaman Tzamarenda Naychapi to all 12 of Germany’s World Cup venues to banish evil spirits before the tournament.

Rafael Nadal is very superstitious when it comes to his habits both on and off the tennis court. He takes a cold shower before every match, he towels down after every point, he points the labels of his drinking bottles toward the end of the court he’s about to play from and he never stands up in his chair before his opponent.

Tiger Woods wears a red shirt while competing on Sundays…because his momma told him to. She said it’s his power color in 1996 and it’s been that way ever since.

NHL players get really superstitious during the playoffs and refuse to shave their beards until it’s all over. The New York Islanders are credited with starting the tradition in the 80’s, and they took 4 straight Cups while doing this, so naturally others followed suit.

No-hitters are special moments in baseball, and the lead-up to them can push players to act in strange ways. Normally it doesn’t start to get tense until the middle innings, and then it all goes downhill. Pitchers are ignored and expected to sit in the same spot on the bench when they aren’t playing. The theory is that If anyone talks about the no-hit bid to to them, it’ll all be over and if they talk about something else it’ll be too obvious they’re just avoiding it. The other team usually avoids cheap bunt hits when they feel a no-hitter coming on, and announcers have to make the choice of mentioning what’s going on or give into the superstition and dodge the phrase ‘no-hit’ altogether.

Larry Walker was obsessed with the number 3. According to a 1993 ‘Sports Illustrated’ article, Walker’s obsession played a role in his game and personal life. He was married on November 3rd at 3:33 and his phone number had as many 3’s as the phone company would allow. While playing, he wore #33 and would take 3 practice swings before going to bat. He agreed to a $3 million contract in 1993 with the Expos.

Babe Ruth always made sure to step on second base whenever he jogged in from right field, and if he forgot, he would run out from the dugout and kick it before the next half-inning began. He also refused to let anyone borrow a bat from him, claiming that each one had a certain number of hits in it and he wanted all of them. The strangest one, however, might be that he frequently wore women’s silk stocking during time off from the game, claiming that they guarded him from falling into batting slumps.

Although Kevin Rhomberg played only 41 games with the Cleveland Indians, he established himself as one of the most superstitious MLB players ever. His most peculiar one was that if someone touched him, he had to touch them back. If he was tagged out while running bases, he would wait until the defense was clearing the field to chase down the player who touched him. He also refused to turn right while on the field. His logic was that baserunners are always turning left, so if the situation arose he’d go to his left and make a full circle.

Mike Bibby was known to nervously bit his nails during games, and eventually he became obsessed with bringing nail clippers to trim down during timeouts.

To avoid calluses and skin hardening, Moises Alou would… pee on his hands throughout the season instead of wearing gloves while batting.

Bruce Gardiner would dip the blade of his stick in the locker room toilet. This started during his rookie season in Ottawa in 1996, when he asked Tom Chorske for advice. Chorske said he was treating his stick too well and needed to teach the wood to respect him.

In NASCAR, Green cars are bad luck, and drivers don’t like to carry $50 bills. But most importantly, they don’t tolerate peanuts in their hulls. Although no one is quite sure about why this superstition has stuck around, but one theory traces it back to 1937 when peanut shells were sprinkled on 5 cars, all of which crashed during the race. Another possible one is that a member of NASCAR legend Junior Johnson’s crew was eating peanuts when an engine blew, and the blame fell on that.

Before every game, assistant team trainer Joe Sheehan would open-hand slap John Henderson across the face as hard as he could. They said it started in 2003 as a way to get him amped up for the game by taking the day’s first hit in a controlled environment.