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How Baseball Great Eddie Collins Won Games With Canned Pineapple And Littering
The MLB Hall-of-Famer didn’t believe in superstitions, but he was confident that the psychology behind it could be used to his advantage
Second baseman Eddie Collins is still regarded as one of the greatest to ever play the game. In addition to his skill, he was a college man at a time when players were frequently viewed as roughcut and uneducated. Although he wasn’t superstitious, he believed in the psychology behind such ideas, and once explained how he was able to parlay odd things like canned pineapple and litter into winning.
After leaving Columbia University, Collins embarked on a remarkable 25-year big-league career (1906–1930) with the Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago White Sox. The left-handed batter knocked out 3,315 base hits, leading to a cumulative .333 batting average. He also added 1,821 runs scored, 187 triples, 47 home runs, 1,299 RBIs and 741 stolen bases. An excellent defender, he was the American League MVP in 1914, and finished in the top six in voting on six other occasions.
Collins was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. After his playing days were done, he had a lengthy career in front office capacities. If there was ever someone who…
