Jimmy Scott's High & Tight: The George Gmelch Interview

For mast baseball fans, their knowledge of groupies and superstitions comes from the movies.  This makes sense, especially for guys, because who wouldn't want groupies?  What red-blooded American man wouldn't want beautiful women to throw themselves at his feet because they like his choice of vocation?  And what fan doesn't find humor in the pathetic insecurities of the pitcher who needs two days of facial hair growth in order to win or the batter who needs to urinate on his hands once a week to keep his skin tough enough for a full season of hits?  Groupies and superstitions. or lust and luck, are two of the biggest reasons why baseball has so many millions of fans.  And on this Jimmy Scott's High & Tight Interview with George Gmelch, we figure out why.

There are different kinds of bsaeball groupies.  Think about it for a moment.  There's the stereotypical groupie, the girl/woman who shows the cleavage and wants to sleep with ballplayers (no pun intended - or was it?).  That's what we think about when you bring up the term "groupie."  But isn't a groupie just a hardcore (there's that pun again) fan?   What's the difference between a girl who waits near the player exit to sleep with Jeter and the memorabilia impersario who waits there to get him to sign something?  In a way, you could say the groupie is more attractive to the player, not just because of her looks, but because she's going to give him something in return for his time and attention.  The memorabilia guy wants the autograph to sell and make money.  There are those, the organized ones, who give the players a cut (under the table and tax free whenever possible), but that relationship is purely financial.

The player/groupie relationship can get financial.  That's an obvious reason why groupies sleep with players.  As Gmelch discusses in the interview, besides the bragging rights to friends and self-confidence aquired due to the conquest, groupies have another motivation: money.  Maybe they can sleep with the guy enough for him to rent her an apartment or give her a clothes allowance to dress up nice next time he's in town.  And we all know the stories of what the evil groupies do, entrapping players in order to sue or extort larger sums of money from them.

If you read Gmelch's book, Inside PItch: Life In Professional Baseball, you read the definition of groupie as per a former Jamestown Expos minor leaguer: "A groupie is any girl who goes to the ballpark who is not there to watch a game."  In the interview, Gmelch says if he were to write that chapter again, he'd take that out.  The game is different now and not all groupies are the way we perceive them to be because of the movies. 

I would also say regular fans are groupies too.  I remember back in 1977, when I was 9 years old, waiting in line for hours to get Lou Piniella's autograph.  What did he get from me?  Nothing, unless he felt good knowing 9 year old kids thought enough of him to wait in line for hours to spend 10 seconds with the guy.  But, in reality, fans - no matter what age - are groupies too.  Fans want to be near ballplayers, to say they are "friends," because it makes them feel better.  What fan doesn't see a baseball player at a restaurant and immediately think about going over and saying hello and asking for a picture and/or autograph?  What fan doesn't watch batting practice and lean over the railing asking for guys to sign balls and hats and programs for them?  What's the difference between a 10-year old boy watching in awe and a 22-year old woman watching in awe?  They each want something from the ballplayer; it's just a little something different.

In Part III of our interview (32:00), we touch upon what the players are looking for; not in a relationship with groupies, but in their own personal relationships with the physical game of baseball.  In other words, because players don't have control over the outcomes of their actions in most cases, they adopt superstitions.

Gmelch writes about superstitions in Inside Pitch, but he goes deeper than that in an article called Baseball Magic.  He breaks the subject down into three parts: Routines & Rituals, Tabboos and Fetishes.  In his Jimmy Scott's High & Tight Interview, George Gmelch explains the differences between the three and gives examples

Routines are "not really magical," Gmelch says.  They are anything you repeat, from stepping out of the box after every pitch and adjusting your batting gloves to eating pancakes every morning on game day at 11:47.

Fetishes are charms, like a piece of garbage you picked up in the outfield right before you hit a game-winning home run.  You hang onto that candy wrapper until you strike out four times in one night, in which case the good luck in that particular fetish has run out.

Taboos are what you don't do, like telling a pitcher he's pitching a no-hitter or stepping onto the foul line.

So what's the point of all this?  Why do ballplayers rely so hard on their superstitions?  It goes back to uncertainty.  They can practice as hard as humanly possible, but once their bat strikes that ball or that slider leaves the fingers or that pitcher, control is gone.  They can't control is the batter will hit that slider, even if it was a perfect pitch.  They can't control if a centerfielder will make a leaping catch, even if you hit the ball a country mile.  In order to make it through a long baseball season, it helps to rely on a little bit of baseball magic.

You've got to hear George Gmelch for yourself.  If you're interested in why groupies and baseball players do what they do, either between the sheets or between the lines, you need to listen to George.  It won't be a waste of your time.

THE MUSIC

Alanis Morrisette - You Oughta Know

Beyonce - Single Ladies

Melissa Etheridge - Similar Features

Brian Setzer - Luck Be A Lady

Stevie Wonder - Superstition

Dan Fogelberg - Tullamore Dew

Traffic - The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

Dire Straits - Private Investigations, Telegraph Road, Brothers In Arms

Mark Knopfler - Speedway At Nazreth

The Eagles - I Dreamed There Was No War

Alan Parsons Project - Pipeline

Soundtrack from Collateral