Sports fans and athletes believe in mind over matter to the point that we think we can influence the outcome of an event, just by saying or willing it. I’m not talking about superstitions or habits that we observe/practice either watching an event or participating in one, but rather commenting on something.

For years, baseball announcers have walked a fine line when covering a no-hit ballgame. Some believe their mentioning of the bid will jinx the pitcher and he’ll lose it immediately. Opposing fans might be yelling about it at the game, but most pitchers won’t admit to hearing that noise. I believe teammates mentioning it to their pitcher can have adverse effects and that’s why they’ll often ignore him in the dugout between innings.

Too often I walk into a no-hitter because of an alert on mlb.com or I might stumble upon one on the local radio broadcast. Regardless, announcers owe it to their listeners to inform them of the status of a game at the end of an inning. The mere mention to a vague audience isn’t going to change the outcome of the game.

I was thinking about this and the great Johnny Red Kerr, longtime Bulls announcer, NBA great and NB coach. He had the knack of highlighting an opponent’s prowess at the free throw line-believing that mentioning it would jinx the player and the Bulls would benefit. For the past twenty years, I’d refer to it as the Johnny Kerr curse.

The other night, Nico Hoerner was batting and Pat Hughes said Nico currently had the longest streak in the league, 27 at-bats without a strikeout. What did he do 39 seconds later? He struck out, and Hughes was silent.

In today’s Cubs-Orioles game, Jon Sciambi mentioned that O’s starter, Kyle Gibson only had a 16% strikeout rate. Two strikeouts/batters later, he said he’d keep quiet on the subject. At least he had a sense of humor about it.

Ergo, I feel safe in celebrating the Cubs current 5-game winning streak, the Pirates four-game losing streak and the overall Cardinal woes. That’s different than my predicting specific future success for the Cubs and sustained bad luck for the others, only to see those predictions blow up in my face.

Did I mention the Cubs have won 5 straight!!