Earlier today, I went to my local peddler of sporting goods where I failed to find the bicyle pump I was looking for. This is however entirely irrelevent to my question. As I was leaving the store pumpless, I noticed a rack of colourful necklace-like things. I had seen them on the necks of some baseball players and I had always wondered what was up with this recent fashion. Reading what was written on the packaging did not help me much; apparently this is high-tech stuff but I still have no idea what it’s supposed to do.
Is this one of these beautiful things that don’t do anything or do these necklaces serve some function?
Last night, as luck would have it, I spoke with a young pitcher who had just thrown a fantastic game for the Boston Red Sox against the Rays. I had watched the game on TV and whenever they would show the close up headshot of the pitcher on the mound, he appeared to be wearing about 4 different necklaces, one of which is like the one you showed in your example.
So, I see this guy in a popular Tampa nightspot late last night, and he also has all of the stuff around his neck. At first I thought it was just some other 20-something kid trying to look cool, but this guy was a tad bit more familiar and who else would be wearing a crucifix, St. Christopher’s medal and two other chains/cords around their neck.
I went up to him and asked if he had pitched earlier tonight. He said yes, and in a way that made me fairly confident that he was the same guy. I asked him about the one thing around his neck and he said it was a “lightning cord” or something like that. I asked if it had any special properties or if it was a superstition, and he said “No, it’s just a thing I wear”. So I told him I was glad the Rays won but he pitched a heck of a game (three hits over eight innings).
The notion that just wearing a necklace would improve your performance seems taken right out of D&D. Phiten titanium necklace of constitution +3. I wonder how many people wear them just as a fashion statement.
I went to another sporting goods store yesterday to buy my pump and I took a closer look at their collection of necklaces. The packaging makes absolutely no claim about performance enhancement, although Phiten’s website does.
